


Through the Valley of Death

by Knoxxie



Series: Out of the Sea and the Earth [1]
Category: Fallout (Video Games), Fallout 3
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Canonical Character Death, F/F, Mostly Canon Compliant, No Smut, Rating Due to Violence and Swearing, also, don't expect to even see Sarah until like halfway through lol, no beta readers; we die like men
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-07
Updated: 2019-02-08
Packaged: 2019-03-28 11:03:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 14
Words: 29,049
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13902678
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Knoxxie/pseuds/Knoxxie
Summary: Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me . . .A story in which the lone wanderer Jennifer Williams must decide whether the ends truly justify the means. Or: a multi-chapter retelling of the main quest, DLC, and major side quests.





	1. Alpha

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is sort of the prologue chapter - my take on how James convinced the Overseer to let him in. It switches to the LW in chapter 2

James dragged his hand across his face and sighed; he couldn’t remember the last time he had slept properly. First, Catherine had gone into a grueling labor that had lasted for hours. Then, after the birth of their child, her sudden cardiac arrest caused by the stress of labor had taken her from this world. Finally, his swift departure from the Purifier and the Citadel. Madison. 

The fight with Madison was weighing heavily on his mind. James hated that the last interaction he would have with her for a very long time would be their screaming match. Madison just didn’t seem to understand what he needed to do, and she had refused to accompany him and “abandon everything they had accomplished”. Which was what, at this point, exactly?

James still wasn’t sure he was making the best or the right decision, but the safety of the vault was the only thing he could think of now. By now, their project was a lost cause. Besides, he had sworn, when he had promised to marry Catherine, to do anything for his family. It seems he had failed his wife, but he would not fail his, _their_ , daughter. This seemed like the only choice he could make in this situation. 

Star Paladin Cross suddenly entered the abandoned garage they were staying the night in and walked over to the chair he was occupying. “Has she gone back to sleep yet?” Cross bent down to examine them more closely in the dim light and smiled slightly at his daughter.

James sighed again. “No, but I think the formula will help put her to sleep soon. She was just hungry.” He also smiled down fondly at the child in his arms. James had always held the opinion that newborns looked somewhat like prewar potatoes, but he didn’t hold the same view of his daughter. Then again, he might be biased. 

Cross gave a sharp nod of her head in acknowledgement and began to pace. “Good. We’re making significant headway out of D.C., but I’m still worried about roving raider gangs or mutants that could be attracted to our location from the noise she makes.” Cross stopped and looked back at him. “I’m just wanted to check in on you two. I’m going to head back out to keep watch. Goodnight, James.” The Brotherhood of Steel member left the garage the same way she came in.

James owed her so much, along with the rest of the Brotherhood. The whole Wasteland did. The group had barely been here for over a year and a half, but they had already started making a name for themselves by assisting wasteland locals and securing the D.C. ruins and the surrounding area. The group, led by Owyn Lyons, was a stark contrast to the main branch James knew back West, but in a good way. He vaguely wondered what made this small branch so determined to help the locals. 

They had provided him with the location of Vault 101, the security to reach his destination (although he suspected that the Star Paladin would have accompanied him regardless), and enough baby formula to last two weeks. The last part he was particularly grateful for. James had no idea what he would have done without the Brotherhood’s help in this. 

-

It was a good thing James didn’t consider himself a prideful man, because he was practically _groveling_ in front of the Overseer of Vault 101. “Please, you don’t understand, I will be a valuable asset to this vault! I have knowledge of hydroponics and medicine. I know for a fact that these are skills that are hard to come by, even with prewar-level education.”

The Overseer’s voice clearly conveyed his irritation through the speaker beside the vault door. “As I’ve stated before, doctor, nobody may enter the vault or leave it. You will not be the exception.” There was only the static of the speaker for a moment, and then the Overseer’s voice rang throughout the cavern with a tone of finality. “If you refuse, I will be forced to engage remote security and forcefully remove you from that cave!”

James felt desperation clawing at him; fear choked him in a vice. This was the only way for his family. The only way to be safe. He had to get in! “I lived in a Vault. I know there are no remote security systems, and I can activate the terminal here to open the door.” Anger rushed through him like a wave. Did this man think him stupid? Who did he think he was fooling with his pretentious ‘remote security’ façade?

The Overseer’s voice thundered from the speaker. “What do you mean _you lived in a vault_?” James could practically hear the other man grind his teeth from outside of the vault. “Lying about such things will garner you no points with me.” The Overseer’s snide voice made James’s eye twitch in irritation. “I can see you quite clearly through the camera; you have no Pip-Boy. Only the owner can take it off without harm, so where would yours be?” 

James breathed deeply to hold his composure; his skill set hadn’t been enough to hook the man, but maybe his background knowledge of vaults could be. “Irrelevant. However, you should have no problem taking in two unmutated humans; more pure genetics can only help the gene pool of the vault by expanding it.” James had many thoughts on the idea of ‘pure’ genetics, but it would be more helpful in this situation to keep those to himself, probably indefinitely. “By the time I left my vault, the population was around three hundred and fifty and only continuing to decline.” James paused for a moment to let what he had said sink into the other man’s thick skull. “You shouldn’t be denying entry to humans that could only help the population of the vault.”

The Overseer’s silence was deafening; when he spoke, the words sounded as if they had come through gritted teeth. The Overseer probably had a vein throbbing in his forehead, at this point. “Fair enough. You keep saying ‘we’, as if there are more than just you.” A statement meant to be a question, clearly. This man seemed to have control issues. In James’s experience, all Overseers did.

“I am referring to myself, of course, and my infant daughter. Her mother died in childbirth, but we were both vault dwellers.” That was an outright lie; Catherine had absolutely no experience with vaults, except for perhaps looting the failed ones. Working vaults with inhabitants descended from the original vault dwellers were exceptionally rare, especially after almost two hundred years postwar. Vault 101 is the only inhabited vault for a hundred miles, as far as James knew.

He cannot let this opportunity pass him by. 

The Overseer’s voice buzzed from the intercom. “I will consider the information you have presented me. Come back in precisely thirty hours; by then, I will have decided whether you are valuable enough to break the most important rule we have.” The intercom popped with a sound of finality. “Come with your infant daughter and no one else. Any other people spotted through the security camera, and you will be denied entrance to the vault permanently.”

James let out the breath he had been holding, slow and controlled. Easy enough, he supposed. James had been planning on sending Cross away regardless of the outcome of this meeting; he can’t overstay his welcome regarding her help, even if they had become good friends over the two weeks they spent traveling together.

He turned and began to walk out of the cave entrance leading to the vault. Passing by the skeletons that had petitioned to be let into the vault, he couldn’t help but elatedly think about how he had accomplished what they hadn’t. James was almost positive he would get in now; he had secured a safe environment to raise his daughter in and, when the time came, to leave her in permanently. 

Despite what Madison seemed to think, James had no intention of abandoning Project Purity completely. When the opportunity presented itself, he would leave and resume his work on one of the most important endeavors to grace the wasteland. It was just that, currently, he had more important matters to attend to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is my first fanfic/published work so I would VERY much appreciate any kind of advice, criticism, etc. This IS in pursuit of bettering my creative writing skills. Please bear with me, I know my writing needs some improvement. But that's why we're here!


	2. The World Comes Screeching to a Halt

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Escape the vault

Jennifer jumped to awareness from the screeching of the alarms. Someone was speaking to her urgently. “Wake up! Get up, you have to get up!” Jennifer quickly rolled out of bed in confusion. The blaring alarms and flashing lights were quickly giving her a headache. Amata grabbed her forearm and pulled her towards the exit of the room. “You have to leave! Now!”

Jennifer pulled her arm back urgently. “Amata, what the hell is going on? What’s happening with the alarms?” Jennifer instinctively stepped back a step or two to give herself space to think. Amata looked extremely upset. Were her eyes wet from crying? Panic jumped through her and made her joints tingle with adrenaline. “What’s wrong?”

Amata quickly rubbed her eyes. “You didn’t know? Your dad left the vault! Those are the alarms that warn us the vault door has been opened.” Jennifer’s mouth dropped open in shock. _Dad left? Nobody can leave the vault!_ “It gets worse.” Amata took a deep breath, as if bracing herself. “The guards…they killed Jonas! I don’t know why they did it, but I looked for you in the lab first before I came here, and I saw everything. You always stay up so late and I thought maybe…” Amata pushed her breath out harshly and rubbed her eyes again. 

Jennifer shook her head. “God, Amata. Dad left?” Jennifer was suddenly very, very angry. “I had no idea he was planning something like this! What was he thinking? Nobody leaves! Ever!” The girl swiftly walked over to her dresser and began to pull on her vault suit and boots. “I need to talk to your dad and smooth this over. He’ll understand that I had no idea about this.” Jennifer finished tying her boots and shook her head angrily. “I can’t believe any of this! They killed Jonas! He shouldn't be _killing_ people!” She crossed over to Amata and gently put a hand on the other girl’s shoulder. “Are you going to be okay? What do we do?” 

Amata had been pulling Jennifer’s old school backpack out of her locker as the other girl had been speaking. “I don’t think talking to my father is going to work. He’s gone crazy! I heard him order the guards to shoot you on sight…” Amata collected the emergency medical kit kept in every vault apartment and stored it in the bag. “You need to get out. You won’t be able to survive down here; not with my father acting the way he is.” She shoved some bobby pins in the bag, too. 

Jennifer slowly shook her head, eyes wide. “Shoot me on sight? Oh my God…” Jennifer took a bracing breath and let it out harshly. “I guess I _will_ have to leave.” Jennifer took the backpack and quickly began to pack. Extra vault suit, folded neatly. Just carry the baseball bat. BB gun and ammo; that will be useful outside the vault. Outside… She couldn’t even imagine…

Amata began to pull Jennifer towards the exit and then gave her a pistol and promised to meet by the vault door. _Go through the secret tunnel_. The next hour was a blur. The flashing lights and screaming alarms made it seem like one of those prewar horror holotapes. Butch and his mother; Jennifer took those roaches out with her baseball bat and Butch gave her his Tunnel Snake jacket in thanks. _Ugh, it smells like his God awful cologne._ Luckily, most of the security guards had been occupied by the Radroaches. After all those years of practicing on them with her BB gun, the multitude of roaches didn’t really affect her anymore.

But the guards… Amata was right. They were bloodthirsty! Two guards gunned down the Holdens right in front of her! Their screams rang in her ears as the sprinted past them. _Get out. Get out. Go go go!_ Fear made her muscles tighten to a snapping point. 

Then Amata was being interrogated. Jennifer burst into the room. It was all a blur, she’s not sure exactly what happened. The Overseer was screaming at her and Amata had bruises on her and Officer Mack hadn’t been wearing a helmet. Jennifer hit him in the face with her bat, pushed back the Overseer, grabbed Amata, then ran for it. _Oh God I’ve killed him he was bleeding on the ground there was a puddle oh God…_

Amata was crying and they were running. “I didn’t think he would do something like this!” Jonas’s dead body lying sprawled on the ground, covered in blood, was something that would never leave her after this night. A note from her father. The Overseer’s office. The terminal and the tunnel. Radroaches, again, but they were too easy at this point. The darkness and the oppressive atmosphere almost seemed to highlight the blood on the end of her bat. Officer Mack’s blood. 

Finally, the two of them were at the vault door. Jennifer quickly made her way over to the lever to open the vault door. The sirens blaring overhead seem to change from an urgent, screeching sound to a slower note with pauses in between. Less grating on the ears, thank God, and the vault door started to move.

Amata couldn’t believe it. Jennifer couldn’t either, frankly, and she had been the one to do it! The sounds of the guards outside the door made a shot of panic so strong shoot through her that Jennifer almost dropped her bat. “Amata, you have to come with me. Those guards will kill you if you stay!” Amata had to see reason. Officer Mack had beaten her, who knows what they’ll do next!

Amata was already shaking her head. “I have to talk some sense into my father. I need to stay with mine, and you need to go find yours.” Amata sucked in a breath suddenly. “I can’t believe this. You’re leaving…” 

Jennifer took in a few deep breaths to steel her nerves. The vault door was screaming open behind her, and the guards were almost in. She only had a few seconds to act. Jennifer pulled Amata towards her gently and kissed her. The vault door clanged to a stop. Jennifer let Amata go. “Be safe. Please. I’ll try to find a way to get back in and make things right.” Amata was staring at her, shocked, rooted in place. The other girl turned and ran out of the vault just as the guards made it through the door. 

Jennifer stopped halfway down the cave and watched, helpless, as one vault security officer handcuffed Amata and the other began to shut the vault door. The two girls held eye contact until the vault door was back in place. Sealed, permanently. 

Jennifer slowly turned and resumed making her way to the door at the end of the cave. _May as well be the green mile._ Ironic, considering what she was expecting the world to look like when she gets there.

The door, a blinding light. _The sun…_ Jennifer couldn’t tell if her eyes were watering due to the intensity of the sun, or something else. Probably a bit of both. The ground was gritty and dusty when she fell to her knees, and she heard her bat hit the ground and roll away.

Jennifer was finally outside.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I wanted to set a pretty fast pace for this chapter; I hope that came through well (other than the beginning dialogue, which hopefully didn't drag too much). I also love the f!lw and Amata kiss-before-leaving-the-vault trope so here we are lol (mind the ship tag). Pretty proud of myself so far; the first two chapters have been 1000+ words each, which seems pretty good to me! Go ahead and tell me what you think (writing style, sentence structure, anything really)


	3. Born in the Vault

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Enter Megaton, stage right

Megaton was not exactly what Jennifer was expecting to find. Lucas Simms and his kid were pretty nice, along with those Stahls. Jericho was somebody she didn’t want to be left alone with; all the hairs on the back of her neck stood up when she met him. _Creepy._ Moira Brown kind of reminded her of Jonas: eccentric and very enthusiastic. Jennifer liked her immediately, and she planned on helping her with that Wasteland Survival Guide project. She really needed the experience that would give her with survival and navigating the wasteland before she tried to find her dad. And also the money. _Fucking Moriarty._ Jennifer kept getting irritated every time she thought about the encounter with Moriarty. Who was he trying to fool with his dumbass fake Irish accent anyway?

-

Jennifer nervously approached the building with the large sign over it, Moriarty’s Saloon. First a sheriff and now a saloon? She didn’t realize the surface was going to be a western. Wasn’t that a thought? Jennifer steeled her nerves and quickly opened the door to the building. 

Inside were probably around fifteen people. Loud music from a jukebox assaulted her ears along with the general ruckus of a dozen people sharing the same room. Dim lights made it hard to see; she couldn’t tell if it was from the fading light outside or if the bar was trying to be atmospheric. A few individuals stood out: a blond haired woman with a general air of anxiety. A man in a tan suit that tried to wave her over when their eyes made contact. _If they even did. Asshole is wearing sunglasses in this dim building, the hell?_ A red aired woman with smoky eyes that was wearing a very low cut shirt…vest…thing. Um. Anyway.

Was that a zombie behind the counter? _Oh, what the hell. Really?_ He didn’t seem to be trying to eat people. He actually looked pretty sad. _Who wouldn’t be if they were missing all their skin?_ He was just serving drinks; probably the bartender, but not the owner. Worth a shot, anyway.

Jennifer crossed over to the counter and leaned on it slightly with her forearms. _All right, don’t you dare be a dick to him._ She smiled politely at him. “Excuse me, sir? Are you the owner of this bar?”

The man looked up in surprise. His cataracts were milky. Can he even see? “Are you talking to me?” His voice was very raspy, as if all of his vocal cords had been shredded. “No, I’m definitely not the owner! Just a worker.” He didn’t seem to be making eye contact with her. _Wonder why he’s so nervous?_ “The owner is a man with a grey beard named Moriarty.” He went back to wiping down the cup in his hands. “Can I get you anything to drink?”

This guy actually seemed really nice, if nervous. She felt kind of bad about her rude thoughts earlier, calling him a zombie and what-not. “Sorry for the mistake, then. And no, thank you. My name is Jennifer Williams. It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance.” She held out her hand for him to shake. However, she slowly let it drop back down after a few awkward moments of him staring at it and not returning the gesture. Did people not shake hands anymore as a greeting?

The bartender hastily dropped his rag and put his hand out. “I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to be rude! You just caught me off guard, really.” They shook hands and Jennifer very firmly made sure that her smile didn’t drop off her face. His hands were freezing cold and a horrible texture; the skin on her arms prickled under her vault suit uncomfortably. “My name is Gob, and I’m the bartender here.”

Jennifer was about to reply with more niceties when a man with a grey beard stepped out from the door behind the bar. “Oh, excuse me, Gob.” She walked around the corner of the bar to catch the man by the stairs. “Hello, are you Mister Moriarty?” Honestly, she didn’t see how it couldn’t be, but it wouldn’t do to be presumptuous at this point. 

The man raised his eyebrow and sized her up. “Aye. And who would you be?” Moriarty didn’t seem very impressed with her.

“My name is Jennifer. I’m looking for my father. Middle-aged, should be wearing a vault suit like me, too.”

Moriarty’s eyes widened in shock. “Oh my God, it’s you… The little baby girl all grown up. Come far now, haven’t ya? It’s been a long time, kid.” He seemed to get over himself quickly, regained his confidence, and nodded once. “Your dad’s been through alright. Here and gone. Got what he came for and left.” 

Jennifer couldn’t respond for a moment; she tried to process what he seemed to be telling her. “Wait, what the fuck? How would you know me as a baby? My dad and I were born in the vault…” _Born in the vault, die in the vault. Last bit wouldn’t be true for her._

The bar owner let out a barking laugh. “Is that what he told ya? You two were born there? News flash, kid, he lied. Probably to protect you, either way.” He grinned and showed off a set of yellow, chipped teeth. “He brought you there after you were born to keep you safe. He stayed in my saloon, ya see.”

For one horrible, choking moment, she couldn’t breathe. _What. What._ Her thoughts must have been plain on her face, for what they were. 

“Yep! Him, the Brotherhood friend, and you. Sorry about your mom, truly.” He clapped his hands together cheerfully. “But! Life goes on and it’s full of disappointment. And now, it seems, you’re looking for him and you’ve come to me.” Moriarty got a business-man like glint in his eyes that put her teeth on edge. She had an idea where this conversation would be going. 

“Let’s cut to it.” Jennifer’s jaw clenched. “How much do you want to tell me where he went?”

Moriarty grinned again and showed off his horrible teeth. She hoped everyone out here didn’t have such a nasty mouth. “What you want is information, and information is a commodity. Let’s say...one hundred caps. Seems reasonable.” The way he phrased his statement made it sound like a question, but she knew it wasn’t and that there would be no bargaining with the man.

That was all she had after selling her BB gun and bullets. Thank God for Moira Brown and the fact that she took one look at her and probably took pity on her. 

Jennifer took the money out of her backpack and handed it over. Moriarty started greedily counting the money. “Your dad went to go talk to that loony in Galaxy News Radio, Three Dog.”

Jennifer turned and started to walk away from him. “Thanks for the info, Moriarty.”

“So long, kid! Good luck finding dear old dad.”

-

This town honestly has a couple of problems. In Moriarty’s bar was some suit guy trying to get her to blow up the whole damn town. Honestly, what does she look like to him? Evil? And then the prick tried to pull a gun on Simms when she turned him in. Simms totally owes her now because she stopped the asshat and shot him. She should probably feel worse about shooting him, but frankly she doesn’t, and she doesn’t know if she should be alarmed by that fact. It wasn’t a cold-blooded murder; the guy tried to shoot Simms in the back! So Jennifer shot _him_ in the back. And then grabbed his gun and ammo, because a silenced pistol will come in handy eventually. 

After that she helped the old mechanic by fixing up the leaking pipes around Megaton. It seems like she’s getting a lot done around here, and she’s less likely to get thrown out of town if the people around here like her. Jennifer probably has a trust issue or two since she’s so paranoid around all these strangers, but it’s probably warranted by the fact that she was locked underground for nineteen years. She almost froze up trying to talk to that Silver woman down in the Springvale ruins before she even walked into Megaton. 

The most obvious thing about the town was the bomb, but that was easy enough to disarm. They even have a cult here centered around worshiping radiation; she hopes they don't sneak into her house and try to murder her for disarming the bomb. 

Jennifer’s not going to question why the vault had books explaining the inner workings of bombs; she’s just grateful that she was bored enough to read them at some point so she knew what she was doing. 

In all honesty, though, what crazies build a settlement around a damn atomic bomb? Some old woman she talked to made some excuse about the “safety of the crater”. Whatever. It really wasn’t her problem, but her altruistic ass can’t say no to dumb people begging for help. Simms was really pleased to hear that she disarmed that bomb in the town center; he even gave her a house for it. Jennifer is just glad she disarmed the bomb and got a house for it before she talked to Moriarty and learned she had to pay for the damn information. Otherwise, she probably would’ve asked for money and Simms doesn’t seem _that_ generous. Jennifer prefers the free house, frankly. 

She seems to be one of the few residents to have one, actually. Most of the people seem to live in these big community houses and probably pay rent. The house was nice; included was a terminal, some lockers, a kitchen, a bedroom, and a small bathroom. _Thank God for running water!_ It even included a Mister Handy named Wadsworth, so she didn’t have to worry about leaving her stuff and getting her house robbed. Also, he dispenses fresh water, which is good. It's damn hot outside the vault.

Jennifer hadn’t expected this many people to be living around here. There seemed to be hundreds! Probably lowballing it, around five hundred with one hundred kids. There was even a little school house near the back of the town! They only seemed to teach kids until around thirteen, though. She only saw older kids working. Which makes sense, considering what the life span of an average surfacer must be. 

Megaton was full of strange and creepy characters, but it seemed like it would be home base for a while. Honestly, the town wasn’t too bad. At least they weren’t cannibals.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to make Megaton a MUCH bigger city than it seemed to be in-game. It probably would've been, if not limited by the engine. So just imagine Megaton being much bigger. Same thing will happen to Rivet City and the Citadel. Few more chapters here. Moira's chapter one of the quest, and then some of the other quests. Also, tell me if the conversation seemed to flow well between Moriarty and Jen. I based it primarily off his game dialogue, because I liked what he said so much. Also I love Gob. 
> 
> Oh and PS, if one word is italicized then it's for emphasis. If it's a sentence then it's Jen's thoughts. Should be obvious but I wanted to clarify.


	4. Wasteland Survival

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 1 of the Survival Guide is completed and an unexpected new friendship is made

Jennifer tapped her boots against the ground to try and knock off the dust then entered Moira’s shop: the Craterside Supply. Moira had offered her a job, kind of. To act as an assistant for her book. _Human guinea pig, how wonderful._ She quickly looked around the shop and couldn’t immediately locate the other woman. “Moira, I’m here! Where are you?”

She heard a shuffling sound and Moira’s voice filtered out from the back of the shop. “Over here! The back of the shop!” Jennifer made her way to the voice and stopped short at the sight of Moira’s hands completely covered in grease. 

Jennifer’s face twisted up in mild disgust. “Why are your hands so dirty?”

“I’m working on one of my side projects, of course! I’m calling it the Rock-It-Launcher! But that’s neither here nor there. You’re here to help me with my book, right?” Moira gave her a friendly look and began wiping off the grease on a rag that had been hanging out of the pocket of her Red Rocket jumpsuit. It didn’t actually help clean off her hands any.

Jennifer gave the rag a wary look, but she nodded her head in assent. “Right. Something about radiation.” Moira got a gleam in her eye that made Jennifer regret offering her help, pay or no pay. 

“The effects of radiation on the human body.” Moira began to move into the main area of the shop. Jennifer quickly followed after her. “The Capital Wasteland is a perilous place, and one of the most dangerous aspects is the radiation.” Moira began to root around behind the front counter. “It’s in the air, the water, the animals, and plants! No escape from the heat, so one of the most important topics of the book will be the ways to combat it.” Moira stood up from behind the counter with a clipboard and a faded, yellow pencil. “Specifically, with Rad-X.”

Jennifer gave the gear a mildly indignant look; her suspicions were rising with every word out of Moira’s mouth. “Okay. Where exactly are you going with this?” Moira handed her a pair of jeans, a shirt, and a very old looking pair of shoes. “Why are you giving me these? What are you planning, you untrustworthy scientist?”

Moira grinned at Jennier and gave her a small push towards the workshop they had just left. “Put those on and I’ll tell you on the way.”

-

“All you have to do is stand there! It’s really no big deal.”

“You’re not the one standing in the puddle of irradiated sludge!” Jennifer’s Pip-Boy ticked frantically with the rising radiation. _Oh my God, this is what Darwin warned us about._ “I can hear my genes dying. I’m going to die from radiation poisoning, or turn into a ghoul, or develop seventy different cancers, and you’re going to feel really bad.”

Moira _hmm’d_ to let Jennifer know that she was listening to her, but not really. “You’re fine. I’m going to detox you before any of those things happen.” She stopped scribbling on her papers for a moment. “Probably.” 

Jennifer looked at the Geiger counter on her Pip-Boy. “We’re coming up to six hundred rads, and I’m definitely starting to feel it through the Rad-X. Please free me.”

Moira nodded her assent and gave her a wide berth as they started on the way back into Megaton. “So how are you feeling?” 

“Like I’m about to melt through the ground.” Jennifer frowned at Moira’s exasperated look. “Nauseous. Tired. Really hot. My head is foggy and pounding, and I’m going to pass out.” The two had only stepped right outside Megaton to put Jennifer in a pool of water, but the hill leading up to the city’s entrance made Jennifer want to keel over and never get back up. “Why did you make me change into these clothes?” Jennifer began to pant as they continued the climb. 

Moira gave her a worried look. “You’re really pale, too. I’d hate to see you without the Rad-X combating the effects. Good thing I didn’t need you to test the effects of radiation without the buffer!” She stored her pencil under the clip at the top of the clipboard. “I’m going to dispose of those. I didn’t want to irradiate any of your clothes, and vault suits are resistant to radiation, anyway. I didn’t want them to skew the test results.”

Jennifer tried to muster an affected look, but it was difficult when she felt so terrible. “Awesome. I didn’t know the suit could do that. Yay.”

Moira opened the city doors for her. “Alright, let’s get you that remedy now.”

-

After the testing, Moira had administered a ‘home-made remedy’ and took Jennifer back to her new Megaton home. Twelve hours of uninterrupted rest later and she felt as good as new. The only unpleasant side effect seemed to be the lovely new mutation she had acquired. _Fucking superb._

Jennifer approached the decrepit supermarket with trepidation. Moira had sent her after food and medicine, so she could record her experience with scavenging. Moira hadn’t informed her about the bandits. _What are they called? Raiders, maybe?_ Regardless, they were not very friendly.

There had been two of them out front, but they had only had some rusty knives and she still had Amata’s pistol. It had been easy, and she still didn’t know how that made her feel. But the bodies hanging on hooks, smelling of blood and rot, helped her decide that she really didn’t care. It was a bit of whiplash; the death of Officer Mack had scared her so badly, when she was escaping the vault, but these people just made it so hard to care about them. 

Jennifer opened the door as quietly as possible, but she cringed when the doors gave a little squeak. Stepping inside, it was difficult to see in the dark, but she didn’t dare turn on her Pip-Boy light. She pressed against the wall as voices drifted down to her. 

“What d’ya thinks happened to the boss? They should’a been back by now!” The voice was rough and feminine. _One inside._

“Probably found some loot or somethin’ on the way.” The second voice, masculine, sounded annoyed. Probably not the first time the woman had asked that question. _Two, now._ “They’re always late. It’s seriously not a big deal.” 

The entire place was dim, but there was a faint light near the back of the store. Jennifer leaned around the wall. There were shadowy figures moving around the planks, on what used to be the store’s shelves. She couldn’t see anybody else moving, so she crept up to the shelves and kept low to the ground. 

The tinkling of glass as she stepped over a broken bottle made her freeze, and then very quickly move into the cluster of shelves. Sharp voices echoing out - _what was that?_ \- and she trembled as she checked her ammo clip. The first raider peeking out over the walkways surprised her, and Jennifer shot wide. The second shot found its target - more chance than skill - in a spray of blood. When the other raider sprinted to his companion, shouting, she wasn’t caught off guard. 

Two shots to the chest had him falling onto the ground; his weapon clattering uselessly. Another one to the head cut off his scream. Frantic voices were coming her way, so she moved back and around to try and get behind them.

She ran to what used to be the pharmacy. Whoever had ran out left the door open behind them and she shut the door behind her. Jennifer moved over to the counter and crouched behind it. She slowly leaned against the counter and aimed her gun at them. The first shot lodged into the man’s kneecap in a shower of blood and bone. The second, his eye. His companion only made it about halfway to the counter before she was dead, too. 

The supermarket was silent. Jennifer slowly released the breath she didn’t know she had been holding and began reloading her gun. She had almost used a full clip of ammo on only six people. _Need to be more efficient. Or quieter, maybe._

Jennifer moved towards the fridge, but the sound of voices pulled her up short. Cursing, she flattened back against the wall and moved to the counter in a crouch. Cocking her pistol, she stood silently and aimed her weapon. _Time to be more efficient._

-

Moira was infinitely pleased with the supplies Jennifer had gathered and the description of her encounter. Jennifer was happy with the money she had jingling in her pocket after selling everything of note from the Super Duper Mart. The girl left immediately to go finish the first chapter of the book. 

A place called Minetown was just north and a bit east from Megaton. All she had to do was investigate the rumors of a ‘ghost’ and deactivate one of the mines. Easy, Moira had said to her, smiling. In and out. Thirty minutes, tops.

 _All lies._ Jennifer’s teeth rattled with an explosion. 

There was some psycho with a sniper rifle. The trap was clever, she had to give him that. Jennifer hadn’t even noticed she had been walking into a death field, and then the water had started to boil. _No time to jump out of the pot, now, just gonna have to push the whole thing over._ She fired at the man and sprinted for the side of a house. 

A mine exploded on her left. She gritted her teeth against the white-hot pain of shrapnel lodging in her thigh. Jennifer just had to make the final sprint to the man’s nest. He wouldn’t be able to use his rifle after that, just whatever close ranged weapons he had. The new wound would make it difficult, but doable. Jennifer crept to the edge of her cover. She let out a breath and leaped from the edge of the building. Sprinting, heaving, she ran for the entrance to the sniper’s hideout. One shot went flying past her shoulder and another followed. The final bullet struck the ground by her feet and then she was sliding into cover. 

The man cursed and stomped down the steps. Hoping to gain the upper hand, she raised herself up and gripped her pistol. She waited, aiming for the entrance. A _click!_ had her leaping back from the grenade thrown from inside the doorway. The explosion knocked her senseless. She struggled to aim as the man came barreling through the door. 

Jennifer fired her gun. Once, twice. She caught him in the shoulder, but he knocked the gun from her hand and grabbed her. The man pulled a knife from his belt and swung it down towards her. She deflected it off her Pip-Boy and the knife cut a line on her upper arm. Gritting her teeth, she pulled the man down and rolled him over. She brought her right fist down on his face. Again, and again. _Crack! Crack! Crack!_

Eventually, he stopped moving.

Jennifer got up, panting, and picked up Amata’s gun. She slowly entered the building and climbed the stairs. At the top was the man’s sniper rifle. Carved into the side was the word ‘Arkansas’. She slung the strap over her shoulder. There was no ghost in Minetown. Just a dead man.

-

The deactivated mines bumped around in her bag. Jennifer’s hand stung, and her thigh and upper arm hurt where she had stitched them. The bandages over both itched. _Thank God for vault doctor training._ She grumpily wished she was back in Megaton so she could use some Med-X. Then her wounds wouldn’t hurt so much. Objectively, the day wasn’t _that_ bad, because she wasn’t dead. But one did not have to be objective all the time. 

A few shots fired nearby. The day could get worse.

Jennifer hurried into the nearby junkyard. There were shouts from the middle of the maze of decrepit cars. She unholstered her gun and ran to the sounds of screaming. The scene was a bloodbath. A few dirty looking people - raiders, probably - were practically ripped apart. On the side, a man with a coat covered in patches was full of bleeding holes. 

A grey and black dog was nosing the dead man full of holes. She holstered her gun just as the dog turned to look at her. He growled, and she raised her hands passively. “Whoa, boy. I’m not going to hurt you.” The dog growled again, low, and she stepped back. 

Trying to keep her body language open - she’s never seen a dog before, but she read about that somewhere - she slowly slipped off her backpack. Rummaging, she brought out some jerked brahmin that Moira had given her after returning from the Super Duper Mart. 

Jennifer slowly threw the peace offering to the dog, and he eyed her suspiciously before sniffing the food. He reached out and started eating it, before looking to her for more.

“Oh, so you like me now that I have food for you, huh? I see how this is.” She kneeled down and he slowly padded over, gently taking the proffered meat. “See? I’m not going to hurt you.” 

The dog licked her outstretched fingers, and she rubbed his ears. “We good now?” He made a grumbling sound that she decided to take as agreement. “What’s your name, huh, boy?” He looked at her with mismatched eyes - one brown, the other blue - and went back to the dead man. 

Jennifer followed and reached into the pocket that the dog was nosing. Inside was a little paper with the word ‘Dogmeat’ scrawled on it, and a little silver whistle. “Are you Dogmeat?” The dog wagged his tail at her enthusiastically. 

Objectively, the day could get better. She pocketed the two items and rubbed Dogmeat’s ears again. “Come on, boy. Let’s go.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So lot's of action! I tried to break up scenes with sentence structure. Longer sentences for slower scenes; shorter ones for fast scenes. Thoughts? Also I thought the change to the radiation part of the quest was funny.


	5. Thirty Minutes, Tops

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Encounters are had and quests are given

Jennifer hated all the open space. In the vault, the only means of attack were from the front or rear. There weren’t different levels - high ground or low ground. People couldn’t stand on top of a building and shoot at someone because there _weren’t_ different levels in the vault like there are on the surface. Except maybe the atrium.

She lamented this fact as the raiders cackled on top of a burned husk of a house and lobbed grenades at her. _Why more explosions?_ The day had been getting better, too. Dogmeat was so cute, and he would run around her and flick his ears. They had _almost_ made it back to Megaton without incident. Then he had stopped suddenly and let out a low growl. Different from the one in the Scrapyard, which had been defensive. This one had been a warning. 

Jennifer leaned out from behind the building she was using as cover and shot at one of the raiders. The bullet slammed into her armpit and the woman screamed and dropped to the ground. Her friends let out angry cries and started shooting more furiously and haphazardly. Jennifer ran to a house closer to their position with Dogmeat hot on her heels. She fired and hit another one in the leg. He fell to the ground with a short scream and a _crunch!_

The last raider came barreling down the derelict stairs. They groaned in protest to the weight. Jennifer raised her gun to fire, but the dog decided to beat her to it and launched himself into the man. Two seconds later, the raider’s throat was ripped out. Dogmeat gave one last bark at the body and scampered off it. She covered her mouth, briefly, to resist the urge to gag at the site.

“Ugh. Good boy, I guess. You’re covered in blood.” The dog barked happily at her. “Come on, Dogmeat. Let’s deal with the rest of these filthy raiders.”

-

Their base wasn’t that hard to find, really. The old school building was practically crawling with the gang. Actually, Jennifer is glad that she hadn’t had to deal with them before this point. It probably wouldn’t have ended well for her. 

Dogmeat is also a lot smarter than she originally gave him credit for. She resigned herself to the thought that the dog would most likely barrel off at the first sign of the gang and alert them all, but it actually didn’t happen that way. He kept to her heel and stayed quiet, waiting for her signal. 

Jennifer crept around the side of the building to the open back. She picked off the few raiders that were ‘patrolling’, in the loosest sense of the word, and made her way inside. 

The building was dark, and she could hear the sounds of people chatting not too far away. She switched out her 10mm pistol for the silenced gun she got from Burke - well, his dead body, anyway. Following the hallway, she paused outside a room that must have ten or so men and women in it around a table. The room held fridges and the counters were covered in bottles and plastic containers: a dining room, maybe? The door was open and light spilled into the hall.

Making sure that her shadow couldn’t be seen from the light of the doorway, she pulled one of the two grenades off her belt. Carefully pulling out the pin, she reached around the door and threw the explosive into the room and slammed the door shut. 

Only a second of confused shouts followed by an explosion that shook the room. Screams filtered through the closed door. Jennifer covered her nose and mouth against the stench of blood that filled the room like a cloud as she entered. Near the door, one man was lying on the ground with both of his legs blown off, screaming. She quickly put a bullet in his head. Every other person that had been in the room were shredded - torn apart by the explosion in the small space. 

Footsteps pounded down the hallway; people were coming to check out the loud noises. She slammed open the door on the other side of the room and came face-to-face with a group of three raiders. Catching them off guard gave her time to quickly aim and fire. Jennifer cursed when it only caught the leader in the upper arm. At her word, Dogmeat entered the fray. 

She finished off the first raider by shooting him in the stomach. Dogmeat broke another’s kneecap and brought her down. The last one aimed a gun at her dog, so she ran forward and slammed him into the wall. Jennifer shot him, and by the time she turned around, Dogmeat had killed the other. 

-

Most of the raiders left were in groups of two or three, and Jennifer and Dogmeat proved they could take care of that many easily. She was shocked to learn that the group had been trying to dig into Vault 101. She’s glad that she killed them before they had the chance. 

Clearing out the rest of the school building was easy. Trying to figure out where those child-sized skeletons came from was hard. 

-

The next day, Jennifer opened the door to the Craterside Supply. “Yeah, Moira, the mine job only took thirty minutes. It wasn’t a big deal at all.”

Jennifer must’ve looked like hell, because Moira raised a dubious eyebrow at her. “Uh-huh. Is that why you looked like you lost a fight with a Deathclaw? What happened?” She eyed the bag in Jennifer’s arms. “And where did you get all that?”

Dogmeat barked from Jennifer’s side. The girl laid the mines she had scavenged on the counter and unzipped the bag. “I killed the raider gang holed up in the Springvale School. Also, there was a crazy sniper dude at Minetown - that’s your ghost. He would blow up the traps anytime anyone entered the town.” She leaned down to ruffle the dog’s ears. “This is Dogmeat. I found him in the scrapyard on the way back from Minetown and he likes to eat people’s kneecaps.” Dogmeat wagged his tail.

Moira’s eyes almost bugged out of her head. “You did _what_ at the Springvale School?” She leaned over to look into the bag. “Those raiders have been there for months! Messing with the trade supply, killing people. What do you mean you just ‘went in there and killed them’?” 

Jennifer rubbed her arm where the Minetown Ghost had sliced her. “Just that. I was almost at Megaton yesterday evening when they ambushed me. I went into the school and killed the rest of them.” She started taking guns and supplies out of the bag. “I got really lucky and a bunch of them were in one room together eating. I just tossed a grenade in there and killed the rest of them in manageable bunches. Will you buy any of this?”

Moira stared at her for a second in silence. “Yeah, I’ll buy these. And thanks for killing those raiders. You’ve helped out Megaton a lot since you showed up a few days ago.” She gave Dogmeat a friendly look. “I’m glad you found a friend.”

Jennifer gave Dogmeat another pat. “Yeah, I’m glad, too.”

-

Jennifer didn’t really like Moriarty, or his stupid saloon, or his dumb fake accent, but she found herself walking into the bar anyway. She did like Gob, and she wanted someone to talk to. Moira didn’t agree to join her - ‘ _I’m compiling the data into the first draft of Chapter One!_ ’ - but she did agree to watch her dog, which was nice. So Jennifer entered the smoky, dim establishment alone. 

It was more crowded than the last time she was here. Probably because it was evening. The space smelled unpleasantly of body odor. Jennifer slid through the crowd to the bar and had to raise her voice to be heard over the rumble of music and chatter. “Hey, Gob! What’s up?”

The bartender looked up nervously, then smiled when he saw who it was. The flesh of his face twisted strangely, but not in an entirely unpleasant manner. “Haven’t seen you in a few days, vault girl. I’m...well, hanging in there.” He looked at her bruises. “Looks like you were in a fight or three.” His voice was as rough as she remembered: similar to dragging a moldy carpet across gravel.

Jennifer shrugged and laughed. “Yeah, well, I’m helping Moira with some book.” She wasn’t exactly a people-person, but it seemed as if Gob was a little bit less anxious around her. That’s a pleasant turn around from recent events. “It’s weird and dangerous, but it pays, so I’m not complaining.”

Gob nodded in understanding. “How’s the search for your dad coming along? Oh, and can I get you a drink?”

Jennifer paused. “Hm, just water, thanks. How did you know I was looking for my dad? Did Moriarty tell you?”

Gob reached into the fridge and pulled out what looked like a tall can of water and set it on the counter. “That’s ten caps.” Jennifer counted them out and he put them in the rusty, old cash register. _Ca-chink!_ “And no, Three Dog’s covered a couple stories on it. Do you listen to the radio?”

Jennifer popped of the top of the water and took a sip. Refreshing. “No, I haven’t. Three Dog is some host? What’s he been saying?”

“That your dad left the vault, and then you. That you disarmed the bomb in Megaton. Nice things.” He tried to look reassuring. She was not reassured. 

“Huh. Okay. Well, maybe I should-” Jennifer was cut off by the appearance of a young, blonde woman. The other girl arrived at the counter quickly and looked anxious. 

“Gob, have you gotten any news from Arefu? Anything at all?” The girl chewed on the fingernail of her index finger.

“Sorry, Lucy, I haven’t heard anything yet. You’ll be the first to know.” Gob went back to nervously looking down and wiping broken glasses. “I need to keep working. Bye, Jennifer. Remember to listen to the radio.” With that, Gob went to fill an order at the other end of the bar.

The other girl - Lucy, apparently - blinked, looking upset. Jennifer sighed internally then took another sip of water. “Is something wrong? Do you need help with anything?”

Lucy looked up at her. “Well, I don’t know…” Jennifer raised an eyebrow at the other woman, which prompted her into continuing. “It’s just that… there may be nothing wrong at all. My parents live in Arefu with my brother, and I write letters to them to keep updated.” She anxiously bit her lip. “Recently, I haven’t gotten a response from anyone. In weeks. The white noise is starting to freak me out. Silence in the wasteland is never good news.”

Jennifer bit the inside of her cheek and lamented her apparent need to help people. “I could check on them for you?” Too unsure sounding, try again. “I can. How far away is it?”

Lucy’s eyes lit up. “I couldn’t ask that of you, but if you really want to, I can give you directions! Oh, all you have to do is check on them and give my family this letter!” The girl smiled wide. Maybe it’s just Moriarty around here with a gross, yellow mouth. “I would really appreciate you doing this for me!” 

Jennifer smiled back at her reluctantly. “I don’t mind, really. It’s not that far out of my way. And you can just mark it on my Pip-Boy map, that would be easier.”

Lucy leaned over to enter the coordinates on Jennifer’s map, then reached into her bag to retrieve the letter. The letter consisted of crusty, yellow paper. _Great, now I’m a courier. Sounds like an easy way to get shot and left for dead!_ Lucy crushed the other girl in a hug. “Oh, get back to me soon! I’m sure there’s nothing wrong.”

Jennifer extracted herself from the hug. “Right, I’ll be back in a few days.” She patted Lucy on the arm. “Don’t worry. Everything will be just fine.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tell me how well the dialogue flows and if you even like this much dialogue in the first place! I am experimenting here. I think I described the fight scenes alright, but let me know if Jen is being an unrealistic amount of a badass. Comments let me know how I'm doing! Also, did anyone love that F:NV reference? lol


	6. The Foolish and the Bold

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Big problems ahead

The sun was slowly setting in a stunning array of red and orange watercolors. The gritty, dusty air made Jennifer’s throat ache, but the sights that came with the surface made that discomfort worth it. The duality of outside life continued to surprise her. Wonderful sights, like the happiness of children playing in Megaton, or the beautiful sunset, contrasted sharply with horrible realities like the Minetown Ghost and the Springvale raiders. Just another aspect to adjust to. 

She hadn’t made it to Arefu yet, but her Pip-Boy map displayed what looked like an old neighborhood not too far from her. Hopefully, she could just hide in a house for the night. However, the smell of burning rubber and tar black smoke rising in the distance indicated that the place wasn’t as abandoned as she had hoped. Crouching down and pulling her sniper rifle off her back, a quick look through the scope revealed an interesting situation.

Several young people seemed to be shuffling around in a barely guarded ‘town’. Flimsy walls of sheet metal covered the areas that would’ve been open space between houses, and a rickety bridge crossed a small moat in front of the main entrance. The lack of hanging, mutilated bodies reassured her that the town was not a raider camp. 

“What do you think, boy?” Dogmeat let out a grumble. How helpful. “All right, let’s play nice.” Jennifer holstered her sniper rifle. She put up her hands and made her way over to the entrance. In her scope, there had only been one guard, so she wasn’t too worried.

The drowsily reclining guard suddenly stood up and sent the metal chair flying. “Hey, who are you? Stop at the end of the bridge!” He fumbled with the gun on his right hip before deciding to give up the futile effort. “What do you think you’re doing here?”

Jennifer stopped at the end of the bridge. She hadn’t been expecting a warm welcome, exactly, but this seemed a bit much. “I’m looking for supplies and a place to spend the night.” The sun had set and a dark haze settled over the landscape. “Why else would I be here?”

The guard apparently decided that he would try again for his gun since she was following his directions. “I d-don’t know. You could try and drag us off to the slavers or something!” He looked despondent. “Honestly, you’re better off scavenging something else out there. Not much is left in Big Town.”

“I’m not going to be selling anyone to slavers, thanks. I didn’t even know there were any.” But she’s not surprised. “And I’d really rather not be out here alone. In the dark. At night.”

The guard let out a wheezing sigh. “Well, all right, I guess.” He tried to put his gun up. He wasn’t very successful. Seeming to give up on the endeavor, he righted his chair and sat back down. “The big building at the end, on the right, is the Common House. That’s where everyone else will be right now. Feel free to go where ever, just...try not to kill anyone.”

Jennifer crossed over the _extremely_ rickety bridge and tried to smile at the guy. “I won’t be killing anyone.” She passed him, then paused for a moment. “Probably.” The guard gave a sharp intake of breath behind her and she turned around. “Kidding!” The guard seemed more likely to throw her back over the bridge. She continued quickly walking towards the Common House.

-

The other inhabitants of Big Town were not any more friendly or helpful than the guard, Dusty, had been. They all seemed dead-set on their ‘holy hellfire: doom and destruction’ sort of mindset. The worst part was, she let her guard down for _one second_ and she got roped into helping them find their kidnapped doctor. Jennifer seemed to keep helping a lot of people she did not originally intend on helping, which sort of sucked, because her dad was off gallivanting across the wasteland probably getting abducted by slavers or something - because those were a thing - and she was stuck helping some defenseless wastelanders. 

Helping defenseless wastelanders including, but not limited to, some guy that had unconscious in the doctor’s house. That only took a minute, though. He had been in a drug induced coma, but Jennifer woke him easily since his internal wounds had healed.

There was no time to appreciate the sunrise this morning, however, because she was quickly approaching the Germantown Police Station. Stomping around outside were a bunch of giant, green monsters. _These must be those ‘supermutants’ the Big Towners were talking about._ The shortest one looked about eight feet tall with bulging biceps the size of both her thighs. _That’s impressive and super fucking scary!_ She was suddenly glad she decided to spend almost all her money on a shotgun from the trader outside Megaton before she left, because Amata’s pistol was not going to do any damage to that tower of muscle. 

She cocked her shotgun. Fortune favors the bold. 

-

The inside of the police station was dark and cramped. The walls were molded, giving the inside the thick, cloying scent of decay. The supermutants seemed fond of eating people if the bags of human intestines were any hint. She wondered where on earth these mutants could’ve come from.

Luckily, the mutants didn’t employ any sort of tactics and just charged at her. The shotgun was very effective in this situation. She only wished that she hadn’t had to learn how to hold it through trial and error, because her shoulder hurt from the first shot. Dogmeat hated the loud, explosive sound of it firing in the enclosed space.

Bloody handprints flaked off the wall and the sting of rust flooded her senses. She had made her way from the second floor onto the ground floor, and she walked into a room with a jail cell. Inside the cell was a young woman that definitely fit the given description. A very pretty girl with a red jumpsuit, glasses, and bandana sat on the ground, trying to saw her rope bindings with a piece of shrapnel. 

Jennifer made her footsteps louder and the girl looked up. “Need a hand or two?” She tried to smile reassuringly and desperately wished she was better at talking to people. “You’re Red, right? I mean, I don’t know who else you could be. You’re wearing all red.”

The girl looked like she was trying not to laugh at her. “Yeah, I’m Red. As you’ve noticed. Did someone from Big Town send you?” 

Jennifer started over to the jail cell door. “Yeah. Everyone, actually.” The lock looked electronic and the wiring connected it to a terminal on the other side of the room. The mutants were smarter than she gave them credit for. “They seemed pretty desperate to get you back.” She started typing and initiated a hacking program - in about five minutes the program would construct the password. 

“Yeah, I bet, seeing as I’m the only doctor! Also, do you plan to get this door open?” Red hadn’t stopped sawing through her restraints and her hands finally snapped free of the rope. She started on her feet.

“I’m running a program on the system to give me the password to the door. It takes about five minutes.” Red looked between the computer and Jennifer, impressed. Then, a worried expression settled over Red’s features. 

“We have another problem.”

-

Someone else had been kidnapped with Red. Some guy, Shorty or something, who was currently in the kitchen and probably in the process of being gutted. 

_You have to wait for the password, anyway, so just go check on him!_ and _You fought your way here so a few more muties won’t hurt anything!_ and _Big Town needs every one of us!_ Sure, Red.

So here Jennifer and Dogmeat were, currently crawling through filthy green monsters to save some guy who was probably already dead. Her shotgun clicked empty and she started reloading her last few shells. However, the room she entered, after busting off the lock, held a treat. 

Stored in a container next to an empty gun locker was a set of combat armor. The matte grey surface was scuffed, but otherwise in fantastic condition. She quickly strapped on the pieces for the torso and back, the upper arms, and the legs. Jennifer felt much better about this now that she had armor and a rad-resistant vault suit. 

-

Jennifer didn’t feel great for long. The setup looked simple: one man, tied up and bleeding everywhere, and one ten foot tall supermutant. She had sent a bottle sailing past the mutant to catch its attention, and the bottle shattered against the far wall. She had sent a grenade after that.

The grenade did more damage to the wall than the supermutant.

The mutant had let out an ear-splitting roar, and her DNA screamed at her to run, get out, _flee for your life!_ Instead, Jennifer cocked her shotgun and a slug sailed after the grenade. And she had accused the Megaton settlers of being dumbasses. 

The skin of her arms prickled under the vault suit. The crackle of ozone filled the air, and a red laser raced out of the boxy gun cradled in the supermutant’s huge hands. It slammed into the wall next to her and the plaster cracked and burned. Startled, she sidestepped and sent the next slug into the mutant’s face. 

That did something. The mutant let out another bellowing scream and pawed desperately at its face. Rivulets of blood streamed from its eyes, and it started firing the laser rifle haphazardly. One bolt came perilously close to her dog, and she ordered Dogmeat back into the hall. 

She fired again and again into the mutant’s face. Finally, the it fell to the ground with a great _crash!_ \- it’s face a pulp of blood and meat.

Jennifer picked up the rifle from the ground. It seemed to be in poor repair. The weapons was covered in dents and rust, and the glass piece on the end was cracked. But, the thing was powerful, even in this state. If she could just repair it, maybe...

She stored the weapon in her bag and crossed to the young man on the ground covered in blood. Actually, he mostly had some head wounds bleeding sluggishly and bruises over his arms. They may not be too bad - head wounds like to complain a lot and bleed easily - but that was a problem for the future. She just had to figure out how to get him out of this kitchen.

In the end, Jennifer had to carry him out. It took a damn long time for the group to walk back to Big Town, and she grumpily hoped that her new armor made the walk uncomfortable for the unconscious man. 

-

Jennifer sucked on the finger that the robot’s circuits had shocked. She was trying to help the residents of Big Town protect themselves in a more permanent manner - the echoes of gunshots could be heard from the practice range - and she didn’t have a lot of faith in their shooting abilities. Not that her own were much to shake a stick at, which is why she’s currently rewiring the robots. Dusty, the best aim in town, was instructing the gunfire as best as he could.

Shorty was still in the clinic, sleeping off his ordeal and the copious amounts of Med-X Red had shot into him. Exiting the clinic, Jennifer had spotted the robots lying in the junk heap and had felt particularly inspired. Especially by the sentry bot. Luckily for Big Town, they only required a bit of rewiring and repowering and not actual repair. 

She wasn’t certain that there would be any more supermutant attacks after clearing out the Germantown Police Department, but the slavers were still at large and very much a threat to the people here. She trimmed the frayed end off the green wire, re-ported it, and closed the electrical panel. Sentry bot, Securitron, and Mister Gutsy: finished. Only thing left was to program the patrol routes. 

A shout sounded near the entrance and alarm raced through her. _An attack? Already?_ She ordered the Mister Gutsy to the town entrance and went to find someone. Gravel crunched under her boots, and she slid to a stop near the middle of town. “Kimba! Status update!”

The tall woman pointed to the ridge beyond the town, where a faint whisper of movement could be seen. Maybe ten, in all? “Slaver party, coming up fast. We’re getting into defense positions.” The woman left with her massive hunting rifle and hustled to the Common House. Kimba, with second best aim in town and first best eyesight, had been designated sniper, and the Common House roof her nest.

Jennifer cursed and ran to her own temporary defense position: the town entrance, with nearby cover to dive into. She hoped maybe, somehow, with God’s grace, to convince the slavers to leave. When they came back, the town would be more than able to protect itself, but the changes were still far too new and tender.

She raised a hand and started to say something - she could never recall what, on reflection - when a fury of pain ripped through her. Three bullets slammed into her abdomen and she hit the ground.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1.) I don't know how hacking works in real life I'm not a nerd  
> 2.) Armor style of FO4 - vault suit under, combat armor above  
> 3.) Slavers instead of supermutants for the above stated reasons  
> 4.) I realized Jen hadn't been shot and she needed some pain  
> 4.5) I PROMISE WE WILL BE AT GNR IN LIKE TWO CHAPTERS THE ACTUAL PLOT WILL ADVANCE I SWEAR LOL!!!!!  
> 5.) Next is the whole Arefu quest  
> 6.) Please tell me if anyone likes this chapter/writing style at all? I am still developing as a writer a lot!!! Honest criticism is appreciated


	7. Burning Blood

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bloody interactions

Her forehead slammed into a sharp rock and wet, sticky blood slipped down her face and over her right eye. Two more bullets flew past her and collided with the ground in an explosion of pebbles. All around her, the residents of Big Town opened fire. She lifted her head and tried to drag herself into cover. Everything was spinning and foggy. Her ribs hurt and she felt blood flowing out of her and onto the ground. She wished she’d worn her armor, but there had been no time.

Dogmeat howled. She slipped into darkness.

-

_Drip. Drip. Drip._

Jennifer’s head itched, and her body felt like someone had dropped a pre-war car on it. She couldn’t remember what happened very well, though. Her memory was hazy, like someone had wrapped it in clear film and submerged it in water. _Drip._ Just the robots and running and someone shooting and yelling. _Drip._ Her hands and face had been wet. Why had they been wet? Had it been raining? No, her hand is wet now. _Drip._ But this felt different. Almost like… _Drip._

Dogmeat?

She cracked open her eyes - slowly, _slowly_ \- and there he was. Dogmeat was panting and drooling everywhere and generally making a big mess. He must’ve licked her hand or someth- _Drip._ And that fucking dripping noise was from somewhere in the room. She wished it would stop, please, finally, so she could concentrate on something. Every time she heard that noise it disrupted her thoughts, like throwing a stone into a pool of water. _Drip._

She tried to turn her head to the noise, but it hurt too much to do that, so she just closed her eyes again and went to sleep.

-

The clean smell of disinfectant filled her nose. A murmur of voices slipped past the haze of sleep and filtered into her ears. Was that… Red, maybe? And somebody else - Kimba, it sounded like. She opened her eyes and tried to call out to them, but her throat was so dry that all she could manage was a weak croak. Footsteps in her direction, then Kimba’s cheerful face looking down at her.

“She’s awake, Red!” The doctor rushed over and peered at her bandages. Jennifer tried to sit up on her elbow to look, too, but her head swam and she leaned precariously. “Whoah, girl. Cool it with the movement.” Kimba caught her arm and slowly helped her into a sitting position. Her abdominal muscles protested loudly and swiftly. Red handed her a lukewarm bottle of water, and Jennifer drank deeply. 

“Ugh. What the hell happened? It feels like I got shot!” The look on their faces sent a spike of panic through her. “I got shot? Seriously? What! How!”

Red tilted Jennifer’s face to look at the stitches on her forehead. “When the slavers came, you stepped up to try and negotiate with them. Presumably. They didn’t let you get a word in before they started firing.” She gave a little sigh. “Any of us could’ve told you they don’t negotiate.” Red let go of the other girl’s face.

Jennifer touched her hand to one of the bandages on her stomach. “I thought it was worth a shot. I didn’t want anyone in town to get hurt.” She sat up a little straighter. “No one was, right?”

“Nope, just you. And all those slavers.” Kimba gave her a little smile and offered her a hand up. “You’ve been out for three days. Red says you’re mostly healed. Through the magic power of Stimpacks, Med-X, and sleep.” Jennifer took her hand and stood.

Red supported Jennifer’s other arm and the group made their way to the dining table in the next room. “And your extreme luck. None of the bullets split into shards, and one of them broke a rib. It kept the bullet from lodging into your spine.” Jennifer sat down at the table and sighed gratefully. 

“Thank God. You took that one out and left the other two in?” Red nodded and Kimba gave them a little startled look. 

“Why would you leave them in? Won’t that kill you? And why do you know that?”

Red ladled some broth into a bowl and brought it over. “Thanks so much, Red.” Jennifer turned her attention back to Kimba. “And no, it won’t kill me. Invasive surgery to remove them would have, though. Now scar tissue will grow around them and they won’t move much. Thankfully, the bullets didn’t shatter, so there’s no worry of them hurting me in the future.” She ate some of the broth. “And I know that because I was being trained as the second doctor for Vault 101.” 

-

After another day of rest, she was ready to move on to Arefu. Her ribs were still a little tender, but her stitches had come out by mid-morning and she was starting to grow restless. Jennifer was beginning an impressive collection of scars. Two small indents on her midsection and on one of her ribs, a horizontal cut - about an inch long- above her right eyebrow, a three inch slice - diagonal - on her left bicep, and a weird twisty one on the outside of her left thigh. 

And an inch-long cut on the inside of her right palm, but that was from when she lived in the vault, so it didn’t count.

Red let Jennifer go from her goodbye hug. “Make sure to come and visit every once in a while, alright? Thanks for coming to get me and Shorty.” Jennifer smiled at the other doctor.

“Thanks for keeping me alive. I’ll try to bring some medical supplies by whenever I can. I can hear broadcasts from your short-wave radio on my Pip-Boy. I have its channel, so if you ever need me, just send out a call.”

Red smiled. “Thanks. For everything.”

-

Almost all of the overpasses Jennifer had seen in the wasteland so far had been ruined and collapsing. The air blew her hair back into her face, and the wind whistled around her. She pushed the strands irritatedly out of her face and regripped the straps of her bag. Now was not a good time to find out she was afraid of heights.

Dogmeat, not at all bothered by the altitude, was sniffing a wrecked car somewhere behind her. She looked up in time to see the silhouette of a man throw something. On her left, out of danger to her, a grenade exploded in a wave of heat and sound. She whipped her pistol out and fired off two shots. She was too far away to see if she hit him.

The silhouette put up his hands. “Woah! Hold your fire!” _Hold my fire?! What the hell!_ She kept Amata’s pistol raised at the man. Dogmeat came screaming up the overpass and she whistled for him to heel. Dogmeat growled loudly and menacingly.

She slowly advanced towards the barricade and kept her sights trained on the man. “Why are you throwing grenades at people if they can’t shoot back? Why throw things at all?”

“There’s been a gang harassin’ us. Breaking glass and slammin’ on our doors every night for the past week. Killed one of our brahmin.” He slowly dropped his hands back down to his sides. “I’ve been trying to keep watch, but I have to sleep sometime. And when I saw you coming up, well, I should’ve been watchin’ closer. The vault suit is pretty noticeable, now that I’m lookin’. I’m sorry.”

Jennifer slowly holstered her gun. “Apology accepted. I have a letter here for the Wests, from their daughter Lucy in Megaton. I’ll go talk to them, if that’s alright with you.” 

He waved her on. “Sure, sure. Name’s Evan King, so you know.”

-

Naturally, the Wests were dead and the brother was missing. Evan didn’t seem to know anything about it, but she had a really bad feeling about the whole thing. Something seemed really...off...about the bodies. The bodies had bite marks on their necks, but they didn’t look ripped out like when Dogmeat killed someone the same way. They had been completely clean, and the teeth marks looked almost...human. The whole thing was just really disturbing and left a sour taste in her mouth, so she decided to leave Dogmeat in Arefu with Evan King.

Jennifer waded through giant mutant shellfish and a ton of traps to find the entrance of their hideaway. At the end of the tunnel, likely leading into the train center, was a gate guarded by a man carrying a shotgun. Crouching down, she activated her most valuable find yet - a Stealth boy. The device would turn her mostly invisible, and she’d distract the guard and sneak inside. 

Hooking the Stealth boy onto her Pip-Boy, she activated it with a _whoosh_. Light footsteps carried her behind the guard, and she sent an empty Nuka Cola bottle sailing past the light of the lantern.

The guard lifted his shotgun and went to investigate the noise. Jennifer carefully unlatched the gate and slipped inside.

The train center was a huge open area, with stairs leading to a second floor, and fairy lights hung over the place. On her right was a desk with a terminal. The terminal was powered up, so she selected the first entry: The Five Laws of The Family. What she read made Jennifer feel sick and angry. _These people are cannibals! They were trying to make Arefu into dinner!_ She had to find Ian and get him out. Then, she would come back and handle this cannibal problem for good. 

She noticed that all of the other tunnels leading to the train center were closed off by debris. Jennifer carefully made her way up the stairs - actually escalators, but functionally stairs - to the second floor. There, a man in a long jacket with a makeshift sword stood overlooking the bottom floor. Sneaking past him, her Stealth boy let out a warning beep to indicate that the device’s battery was almost drained. She froze as the man whipped around to stare directly at...well, _through_ her. He carefully looked around the area, and slowly turned back to his observations. 

Sighing in silent relief, she stalked to the only other door in the area. It had a terminal next to it, and powering the computer up revealed that a passcode was necessary to open the door. 

Cursing, she started the manual hacking program. In this, she had to surf through different codes to determine the password. It was faster than her automatic decoding program, but the margin for failure was much higher. She had managed half the password before her Stealth boy deactivated with a loud, dramatic _whoosh_. The man overlooking the entrance turned and spotted her immediately. 

Unsheathing his sword, his coat flared behind him as he ran towards her. “Stop your actions immediately!”

She whipped out her pistol and aimed at the gas tank on his back. “Nah, I don’t think I will.” She shot, and the gas tank exploded in a screaming ball of fire. Shouts of alarm followed the display, and she cocked her pistol, waiting for them to come.

-

Ian West killed his parents. He told her, after the fighting stopped and she opened the door. He ripped out their throats. He was whining - something about The Hunger, and how she didn’t understand. Without a word, she gave him the letter from Lucy and walked away. She would go to Arefu, pick up Dogmeat, explain the situation to Evan King, and then head to Megaton. To tell Lucy her brother murdered their parents. _Dad and I may fight a lot, but I would never think to…_ She would be devastated if something happened to him. 

She felt sick. She missed her dad, and Amata, and feeling safe. She wanted to curl up in bed and read books and eat snack cakes and not feel so lonely and terrified.

Jennifer reached the door that led outside, leaned against it, and cried.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I learned a lot about gunshot wounds from Google for this chapter lol. Also, Jen is feeling the stress.
> 
> Hopefully the beginning of the chapter wasn't too boring? I kinda liked writing the injured POV and it was good practice for more description and imagery I think. I tend to leave those out on accident (I'm more about dialogue and character interaction).


	8. White Fire

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> GNR: all you need to know

After trading off her shotgun and shells, Moira showed her how to fix a few of the wiring problems on her laser rifle and sold her a new glass panel to replace the cracked one at the end of it. It still has a few internal problems - things Moira didn’t have the parts to replace - but the power distribution is more effective. She bought the ammunition - Microfusion cells - to power it. Moira also painted a ‘101’ in the middle of Jennifer’s combat armor chest piece in a cobalt blue color. With that, she and Dogmeat left Megaton to find Galaxy News Radio station.

-

Jennifer had started listening to Three Dog, occasionally. He had reported on her and Dad leaving the vault, and the “second vault dweller” that disarmed the atomic bomb for Simms. Three Dog also did informational news reports: talking about Yao Guai, supermutants, and raiders.

There was also another danger he talked about. ‘Feral ghouls’ that lived in the subway tunnels and actually did attack people. They went insane from the radiation exposure, as opposed to regular ghouls that got lucky and only lost their skin. She hadn’t really known what to expect when she entered the subway tunnels, but emaciated, screaming zombies trying to eat her and her dog was not it. 

Holding the thing away from her face by its jaw, she quickly brought Amata’s gun up and shot the thing in its milky eye. Blood splattered out the back of its head and it crumpled. “Ugh, gross!” Jennifer pushed the dead body off and stepped away from the ghouls.

She reloaded her handgun and picked her laser rifle up off the ground. The thing was much more powerful than anything else in her gun arsenal - surprisingly effective against supermutants - but she was careful with firing it. The ammo was too rare and Moira had only stocked seven MF cells. She wasn’t sure how many shots were on each cell, and she didn’t want to find out too quickly and end up with no ammo.

Jennifer pushed open the door leading to what was labeled on her map as ‘Chevy Chase’. The area was open, with several wrecked cars spread around and ruined buildings lining the area. The air smelled strongly of ozone, an indicator that high powered laser rifles were being used. More supermutant bodies were lying on the ground, covered in cauterized wounds. 

What sounded like...electronic voices, maybe...shouted ahead of her, and the sounds of fighting reached her ears. She ran to the ruckus, but by the time she reached the noise all the mutants were dead. Standing ahead of her were several hulking suits of power armor, carrying laser rifles, and covered in blue symbols. A sword in a circle, surrounded by wings, above a set of cogs. 

During history class in the vault, they’d watched holovids about different events in American history. There had been clips about the liberation of Anchorage, Alaska at the end of the war. A lot of the soldiers had been wearing a different type of power armor, but the design was still similar enough for her to recognize.

One of the suits looked at her and stomped over. She couldn’t make out any features, because the other person was wearing power armor and a helmet, but the suit had a second symbol on the left shoulder. A lion rampant in a circle, over a sword, set above a pair of wings. “I don’t know who you are, but you don’t belong here. Supermutants have overrun our brothers at Galaxy News Radio and we’re going to back them up. We don’t need civilians interfering with our operation.” The buzzing voice was feminine and full of impatient irritation. 

Jennifer felt small compared to all the armor looming above her, and the other suits gazes’ were making her embarrassed - even though she hadn’t even done anything wrong, as far as she was aware. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to get in your way. I’m trying to go to GNR too. I just didn’t know this place was so dangerous.”

The woman almost didn’t seem to believe her. “Have you been living under a rock? This is Downtown D.C. The entire place is crawling with muties!” 

“I’m from a vault, so yes, I have literally been living under a rock. A big one. Usually it’s called a mountain.” One of the suits snickered quietly in the back of the group.

The woman shot a look back. “Reddin, shut up.” She pointed a finger at Jennifer. “You, I don’t have time for this. Follow us if you want, but stay out of our way. And don’t do anything...stupid.” She turned and started issuing orders to the other members, and they were off. 

Jennifer mostly stuck with someone named Colvin in the back of the group. He was genial and polite, even though she was introduced to him as ‘the stray’. Probably the least likely person here to bite her head off. She was also proud to say that she took down several of the mutants they came across getting to GNR and didn’t miss a shot. 

They’d arrived at the last building before GNR. Outside, the sounds of fighting reached them. The woman - she must be in charge, their commander or something - issued out orders. Colvin turned to Jennifer. “Come with me. We’ll have the best view.” She didn’t think that was a suggestion. _Probably getting me out of the way so I don’t ‘interfere with the operation’._

Jennifer took point and the two made their way to the top floor. There weren’t any mutants left in the building, and the two fired on the mutants outside GNR. Within minutes the area was clear. She reloaded her rifle - MF cells get around 24 shots each, she’s learned, and she’s down to six cells, now - and turned to Colvin. “Should we head down now? Everything looks good.”

“Orders say I have to stay up here for a while, but you’re free to go inside the building.” He pointed out the blown apart wall to the entrance. The door was surrounded by more people in power armor that were using sandbags as fortifications. They all had the same symbol on their right shoulder pad: the sword, circle, gears, and wings. Only the group that she’d followed here wore the lion rampant on the left shoulder. _Must be a special group._

She and Dogmeat walked down to the entrance of the building that led into the square outside GNR. She’d gotten about halfway across the square and was passing the fountain. Reddin was on the far side, near a stack of hollowed out buses. She was saying something about celebrating and Vargas, a few yards away, was reprimanding her. 

Jennifer wasn’t listening to them. There was a sound… nearby, echoing, getting louder… It sounded huge, like it was smashing everything in its way. The ground was trembling, rumbling. The hair on Dogmeat’s neck stood up and he growled. Nobody else was listening. “There’s something coming!” The woman in charge - maybe, it’s hard to tell when they’re all wearing the same armor, but she had a special blue symbol on her forearm, a rank - looked at her quickly from where she was standing talking to one of the guards nearby. _SMASH!_ “By the buses!”

The commander waved to the other two. “Vargas! Reddin! Move away from the buses!” Vargas retreated but Reddin either wasn’t listening or couldn’t hear her. It was almost on top of them…!

The stack of buses exploded in a ball of nuclear fire. A wave of heat and sound rolled over her, and Jennifer stumbled from the force. Reddin crashed into the outside wall of a building and didn’t get up. A monster, huge, thirty foot tall, slammed his weapon to move the vehicles from his path, roaring. A screech of metal against concrete and they went flying. 

“Behemoth!”

Around her, the suits of power armor exploded into action. Lasers and bullets slammed into the monster’s hide. _Run. Get the high ground._ Jennifer flew over the rubble littering the square, Dogmeat by her side, back to the building she had left Colvin in. She climbed sets of stairs, moving faster than she ever had, fumbling with her bag. In it, something she had made in Big Town while she was resting. Something for emergencies. This was an emergency. 

She climbed onto the roof, pulled out her lighter, and lit the first of her makeshift grenades. She threw the it as hard as she could, all her weight behind it. The bomb sailed through the air and landed between the monster’s back and its armor, near the neck. A flurry of sparks flew into the air and a bright white fire filtered from inside the armor, smoke rising.

The behemoth screamed in pain and fury and turned to her. It raised its weapon - an enormous fire hydrant on a pole - and slammed it into the edge of the roof, near her position. A chunk of the building crumpled on that side, cracks spreading along the rest of the plaster. She ran to the other side and fumbled with the lighter. The fuse caught and she threw it just as the monster opened its mouth to scream at her. The second bomb landed in the middle of its open mouth, near the back. 

The thing dropped its weapon to paw at its face. Smoke and light filtered out of its unevenly closed mouth. It stumbled and collapsed to both knees. With one final groan, the behemoth toppled to the ground, dead. 

-

She wasn’t sure how to get down, actually. The ladder leading down to the top floor had been part of the building that had fallen away. Good thing she’d left Dogmeat on the ground floor, because he may have been crushed otherwise. Some of the soldiers in the square went to inspect the body of the behemoth. 

She lowered herself on the edge of the collapsed roof and swung into the top room. The stairs were still intact, and the corner of the building had been opened like a can, exposing the inside of the top floor. She climbed down the stairs, slower this time. Colvin followed her. Her healing rib hurt from the swift climb up. Dogmeat rejoined her side and they exited the building. 

“What the hell was in that?” Colvin sounded a little impressed. _Finally. Maybe now they won’t think I’m an idiot that can’t do anything._

She wanted to rub her ribs to get the soreness out, but her armor was in the way. She probably shouldn’t, regardless. “Thermate TH3. The things can melt concrete and steel. I thought they’d be useful.”

He gave an electronic chuckle. “Well, I’d say they were definitely useful. Good job.” His armored hand clapped her on the back and she stumbled. 

He rejoined the group of people that she’d followed here. She passed by them, until the commander - or whatever her title was - stopped her. “Vaultie, come here.” Jennifer sighed internally and turned, raising an eyebrow. “Nice work with the behemoth. Those grenades kept a lot of people from getting hurt.”

Jennifer shrugged. “Thanks. I wanted to help somehow. And, um.” She wasn’t sure if they would mind, but… “Sorry about Reddin, and the others.” Vargas sighed. 

The woman nodded her head once, to acknowledge what Jennifer said, and turned to Vargas. “It’s not your fault, Vargas. Reddin proved here that she was good enough for the Pride. When we get back to the Citadel, I’ll talk to the scribes and have it chronicled that she passed her test.”

Jennifer stood there for a second, indecisive. “Well, um, see you guys inside?” She turned and entered the building.

-

Like most other people she had met so far, Three Dog wanted something from Jennifer before helping her. After all that grand talk about the fucking Good Fight, he was blackmailing her to get what he wanted. She had to go to the Museum of Technology in the Mall that’s infested with flesh-eating supermutants and replace his stupid satellite antenna thing for his dumbass radio show. She would’ve offered to help him even if he had told her the information she needed in the first place. At the very least, he let her borrow a room for the night. 

She exited the recording studio and looked down to the building foyer, where she left her bag and Dogmeat at the bottom of the stairs leading up to the second floor. There, Dogmeat was playing tug-of-war with one of the soldiers. She watched the two with a smile. Most of the people that weren’t on guard had disengaged their power armor to save fuel.

Moira had sold her a ratty teddy bear for a cheap price soon after Jennifer had brought Dogmeat to Megaton for the first time. Her dog loved it. The bear was soft, easy to throw, and worked for the wrestling games he sometimes liked to play.

Dogmeat saw her standing at the top of the stairs looking down at him and he let out a bark. He raced across the tiled floor, sliding, and up the stairs to get pets. She leaned down and scratched him behind the ears.

She descended the stairs and the man walked over to her and offered the toy. He was probably the tallest person in the room, which is saying something, because most of the people in the room were taller than her. “I hope you don’t mind. He got it out of the bag and started making a fuss.” He smiled slightly at Dogmeat. “A cute fuss.” Dogmeat grumbled.

Jennifer waved it off and took the toy. “Not at all. He likes attention.” Dogmeat gently grabbed the toy from her and started shaking it around. She offered her hand to the man. “Jennifer Williams.”

He shook it firmly. His hand was way bigger than hers. _Why are all of these people so tall?_ “Greg Bear. But you can call me Kodiak.” She let her hand drop to her side. She looked at him closely to make sure he wasn’t joking.

“You mean...like the bear?” He nodded his head and she tried not to laugh. “Okay.” 

A woman walked over to the pair. She was stunningly pretty, with golden blonde hair and pale blue eyes. She was also among the list of people much taller than Jennifer. “Your dog has been good for morale, and he’s well behaved for a wasteland mutt. What’s his name?” Jennifer recognized her as the commander from outside by her voice. 

“Dogmeat.” She felt a tiny bit defensive at the other woman’s incredulous look. “Don’t look like that, I didn’t pick it. Who are you people anyway?”

Kodiak looked surprised. “You don’t know?”

“Is it really not obvious? I’m from a vault. I wear a vault suit. I have a Pip-Boy! No, I don’t know.” 

The woman pat Kodiak’s shoulder. “Don’t worry about it. I stepped right into that one earlier, too.” She looked back at Jennifer. “My name is Sarah Lyons. We’re members of the Brotherhood of Steel. I’m a Sentinel and squad commander of the Lyons’ Pride. I don’t believe I caught your name.”

Looking between the two of them, Jennifer smiled widely. Amata always said it made her look exactly like Dad, because of the crinkles they’d get at the corners of their eyes. “I’m Jennifer Williams. Does everyone make name puns in the Brotherhood, or is it just the two of you?” 

Sarah smirked at her. Jennifer blushed. “It’s a VIP club, so yeah, it’s just us.” 

Jennifer absently rubbed the scar on her right palm. “What does the Brotherhood do, exactly? Fight the mutants in downtown? I haven’t seen any of you further north.”

Kodiak answered this time. “We’re based out of the ruins of the Pentagon, now called the Citadel. So we do primarily fight the mutants in the D.C. area.”

Sarah nodded in agreement. “Years ago, we had much further reach in the north. But there have been a long series of complications that forced us to pull our people back.” The woman gave a resigned shrug. “We do our best, though. If we don’t try to keep the mutants from killing everyone and everything in the Capital Wasteland, who will?”

Jennifer was a little dazzled. “Your best really is a lot. I haven’t met another group that’s just trying to help people for nothing in return. I’d hate to see this place without your help - everything up north probably would’ve been overrun.”

Sarah looked a little stunned by her honesty. Jennifer hoped she hadn’t overdone it - she’s never been good with other people - but then Sarah smiled at her kindly. “I appreciate that. It’s easy to forget, sometimes, how much good we’re doing when we don’t see the wider effects.”

Another Brotherhood member came running up to the group, saying something or other about a Knight Paladin - how medieval - and supplies. Jennifer wasn't listening, really, she was too flustered to pay close enough attention. Sarah gave the messenger a firm nod and looked at Jennifer for a second. "We have to handle this, but it was nice to meet you, vaultie." 

"I, um, yeah. You, too." Kodiak gave her an amused look, and the two walked off.

-

Jennifer left soon after that. The sun had already started to set, and she needed a good night’s rest. Tomorrow, she’d face the Mall.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It was weird to me that a soldier would be in a war zone with no helmet, so I fixed that. Also Kodiak is really interesting as a character so I wanted to include him a bit, since I'm not sure how much screen time the Pride as a whole will get. Power armor is based on FO4's.
> 
> I know how to make thermate & thermite so I assumed my 8 INT nerd would also know how to make them. I thought they'd be an interesting alternative to the mini nukes. Also my LW would NOT have been able to lift that Fat Man LMAO. Go watch some thermate explosions on YouTube it's pretty awesome btw.


	9. Our Lady Hope

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jennifer makes more friends in this chapter

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the slow update - back to college work and stuff has gotten in the way of writing for fun. But let me know what y'all think!

Jennifer wasn’t sure it ever got boring on the surface. There was so much to do and see! The whirring sound warned her of the minigun a split second before she ducked back into the trench. 

“HA HA HA! DIE!”

Things to do such as get shot at. 

It had been a long damn day. One would think that the Mall would be relatively simple to navigate, compared to other parts of D.C. It was a rectangular shaped area with buildings on the edges. She had seen pictures of the Mall in books. She knew what to expect. However, some dumbass decided to dig trenches throughout the area, making navigation five times as difficult. _Have these people never read about World War I? Honestly._ Then, supermutants had infested the trenches and were defending them tooth and nail. Jennifer just didn’t have the bullets to deal with this. 

She pulled the pin on her last grenade and threw it in the general direction of the mutant. Its screams followed her and the dog along the trench and up the stairs. The two ran to the outer edge of the area, near the buildings. One of them looked slightly less decrepit than the others. _Museum of History, huh? Good enough!_ She ran over to what used to be escalators leading down and hid behind them. Jennifer didn’t hear any mutants chasing after them. Leaning out, she scanned the area. Looks like its cle-

“What’s up, tourist?”

Jennifer let out a short scream and fell over on her side, pistol clattering. The hair on Dogmeat’s neck stood up, and he let out a menacing growl. Behind them, over by the entrance, was what looked like a ghoul reclining in a metal chair. She raised her beer in a salute when she noticed Jennifer looking back. 

“What the hell! Where did you come from?!” Dogmeat barked aggressively, and she whistled for him to heel. 

The ghoul took a sip of her beer. “Just been enjoying the show. Good job with the supermutants.” She jerked a thumb back in the direction of the door. “I keep an eye on the outside for Underworld. Make sure nothing unsavory gets in.”

Jennifer grumpily picked herself up and dusted off her jumpsuit. Holstering her pistol, she turned and started making her way to the woman. “Okay, great, Underworld is a city? And what’s your name?” 

The ghoul clicked her tongue. “Don’t know if I like your tone, tourist.” She threw her empty beer bottle, and it shattered against a far wall. “Underworld is ghoul-central. Most of us congregate here. Just easier that way. And I’m Willow.”

“It’s great to meet you, Willow. Now, can I go inside, or do I have to solve a riddle?” 

Willow frowned at her. “Don’t be such a prick. Yeah, go on inside, have fun.”

Great, now she’s made Jennifer feel bad. “Sorry, it’s just been a long day. Come on, Dogmeat.”

-

Jennifer’s not exactly sure what she was expecting with a name called Underworld, but they really did go all-out with the decor. Somebody thought they were clever and named everything out of Dante’s _Inferno_. She ended up in a bar, The Ninth Circle. The barkeep, she couldn’t remember his name, was telling her about the guard in the corner. Apparently he was brainwashed, so he had to follow any orders someone gave him. _Well, that sounds a lot like slavery._ The longer she sat there, the more a plan formed in her head. 

Jennifer interrupted whatever inane thing the man was saying. “Could I buy Charon’s contract from you?” The man gave her a look and laughed.

“Sure. That’ll be two thousand caps.” He grinned at her, probably thinking she didn’t have that kind of money. He let out a surprised sound when she counted out the caps and slid them across the table. 

He gave her a considering look. “Hm. This will be enough to hire a replacement for Charon and have plenty left over for myself.” He leaned down and opened the safe set in the ground. He handed a piece of paper to her. “Charon’s contract is yours. Have fun.” 

Jennifer nodded at him and approached the ghoul in the corner. He didn’t even turn to look at her. “Talk to Ahzrukhal.”

She held out the contract to him. “I have your contract now. You don’t work for him.”

Charon’s head snapped around to meet her gaze. “You purchased my contract? So, I am no longer in his service.” She nodded her assent, and he pushed away from the wall. “If you’ll give me a moment, I have some business I need to take care of.” He walked over to Ahzrukhal and exchanged a few words with the man. A moment later, Charon shot his former employer twice in the head.

Calmly collecting the money off the counter, he returned to Jennifer and handed her the caps. “Alright, let’s go.”

She eyed the shotgun holstered on his back. “Damn. You don’t mess around, huh? Are we going to get kicked out for this?”

Charon met her gaze evenly. “No. Ahzrukhal was an evil bastard.”

Dogmeat sniffed Charon’s boot. “Well, that’s fair, I guess.”

-

Jennifer can’t seem to go anywhere without ending up helping someone. She just wanted to get some medical supplies and somehow she ended up waking a woman up from a coma. Then the woman, Reilly, wanted her to help get her mercenary gang out of trouble. She sighed internally. _Why am I so nice?_

So Jennifer, Charon, and Dogmeat were all fighting through the Statesman Hotel. The entrance was blocked off, so they had to enter through an adjacent building - Our Lady of Hope Hospital. Not what she would’ve named it, but nobody is asking her. They’d had to cross over to the Statesman Hotel by climbing over a collapsed crane. Charon is _never_ allowed to tell _anyone_ she is scared of heights. Under threat of death. 

Jennifer fired off a few shots around a corner at a supermutant. The monster let out an angry yell, and Charon finished him off with a blast from his shotgun. The ghoul was proving to be useful, but she still planned to hand off his contract at the soonest convenience. She just wasn’t comfortable with having someone like him in her employ. Too close to slavery for her comfort. 

Jennifer spotted the ammo crate that Reilly mentioned. “Charon, will you carry this?” He grunted and picked it up. “Thanks, let’s go find these Rangers.”

It took a few minutes, but they fought their way to the stairway that led up to the roof. Jennifer held the door for her group and they made their way up to the roof.

-

Explosions shook the ground under them, and Dogmeat let out a grumble of displeasure. Covering almost all the free space of the roof were the bodies of supermutants. An arm flew past the group and landed with a _thud_ behind them. 

What must have been Reilly’s Rangers were standing further back on the roof and they looked...pretty awesome, actually. Like comic book heroes. 

“So, you’re the Rangers? Reilly sent me to help you.” A man waved them over with a friendly smile. 

“The name’s Butcher. I’m the medic. And yeah, we’re Reilly’s Rangers.” A tanned woman with short hair interrupted. 

“You planning on passing out that ammo sometime soon, sweetheart?” She pat her minigun fondly. “Eugene here is runnin’ on empty.”

Jennifer blinked in surprise. “Uh, yeah, sorry. I just need to put in the code.” Charon set down the crate and the mercenaries swarmed to refill their guns. 

A man about Jennifer’s height - finally! - turned to look at her. “Sorry about her. I’m Donovan, and that well-mannered lady over there is Brick.” 

The woman, Brick, shot them an incredulous look. “Fuck off, Donovan! I’m as well mannered as I need to be.” Brick smirked and winked at Jennifer. 

She could feel her face starting to heat up. _Um!_ “That’s, um, good. Reilly’s over in Underworld, so we should probably go. There. Because she’s waiting for us.” 

Donovan nodded. “Damn, she made it far. Well, I need a fission battery to make that elevator work. Otherwise, we’ll all be crawling down those stairs.”

Jennifer had one in her bag, so after a few minutes they were all good to go. The group made their way out of the Hotel and back towards Underworld. They had to fight off a few groups of supermutants, but it was significantly easier with a large, well-armed group. Reilly was ecstatic to see the group, and as far as Jennifer was aware, they were going to be hanging out in Underworld while Reilly fully recovered. 

As for Jennifer, Charon, and Dogmeat, it was only around noon, and the group still had to face the Museum of Technology.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So not much fighting, because I realized that it would just be a lot of "they shot supermutants" over and over again. So it was a little more character and narrative focused. Sorry it's so short!


	10. To Infinity

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Reminiscing in the Museum of Technology

The rusty _groan_ of the door as it opened made Jennifer wince. She already knew better than to hope there wouldn’t be any supermutants in the building, because they had infested the whole D.C. area. Every nook and cranny had a mutant crawling around in it, but that begs the question: where the hell had these things _come_ from? She didn’t think they were a result of the bombs falling, like the ghouls. And where was their base? It would certainly make things easier for everyone if someone got rid of it. 

A fallen plane was their first greeting into the building. Although the foyer was a mess, it didn’t seem as though there were any supermutants in it. Quietly, though, up the stairs to the second floor, she could hear the shuffling sounds she had started to associate with supermutants walking. The hair on Dogmeat’s neck stood on end, and he crouched closer to the floor. 

At her nod, Charon started up the stairs and Jennifer raised her laser rifle. Charon leaned next to the doorway and knocked on the frame: a sharp _tap tap tap_. A shout later, and a supermutant carrying a hunting rifle barreled through the door. Jennifer shot at him, but he raised his rifle the moment she fired. The laser impacted with his hand rather than the face she had been aiming for, and his screams echoed throughout the building. 

Charon shot the back of its head, and the supermutant tumbled to the ground with a _crunch_. The smell of burning flesh mixed unpleasantly with ozone, and Jennifer wrinkled her nose. The flesh of the mutant’s hand had melted onto the stock of the hunting rifle. Dogmeat followed her up the stairs to Charon. 

The group continued throughout the building in a similar manner. They had just finished a fight with a few supermutants when her rifle made a slightly scary whirring sound. “Son of a bitch!” Jennifer knocked her hand into the barrel of the laser rifle. “I think my gun just _broke_!” 

Charon raised an eyebrow at her, or he would have if he had any skin on his face. “Must be something wrong internally. If you try to shoot it, the wires might catch fire.”

Jennifer had the temptation to _throw_ the _damned rifle_ into the wall and see how it liked that. Luckily, she is a mature adult who can handle unexpected, life-threatening inconveniences and simply slung the rifle over her shoulder and unholstered her pistol. 

They passed through what must be a demonstration vault. It was kinda nice, she guessed, though the exhibit didn’t quite capture the soul-crushing depression only a life in the vault could create. Maybe that didn’t have anything to do with the vault and it was just her. Maybe that’s just what happened when you only had _one_ friend and an inattentive, constantly disappointed family member to spend time with. 

The rest of the exhibits, though, cheered her up immensely. Jennifer _loved_ space. She tries not to dwell on the past, but she can’t help but resent pre-war America for getting involved in a nuclear war. All those years of advancement were lost for nothing. Jennifer is convinced, personally, that if they hadn’t gotten caught up in all those wars, they would have been able to establish colonies on Mars by now. Of course, she’s sure they’ll get there again some day. This is a temporary setback in the grand scheme of human history. But she would _love_ to be able to go to space, and that just won’t happen in her lifetime.

Soon enough, they were at the exhibit with the sacrificial satellite dish. She would’ve been saddened if this was the real Lunar Lander, but thankfully it was only a replica. All she had to do was unscrew a few bolts and hand it to Charon to carry. She was going to miss him when he left. His long arms were very useful for carrying things. 

Down the stairs, around the bodies of supermutants, and out the door of the Museum of Technology. Now all they had to do was cross the trench-warfare-hellscape to get the the Washington Monument. Easy peasy, right?

-

Jennifer needs to stop jinxing herself. Nothing about this was easy peasy. To be fair, it had actually been going fairly well, until some guys called the ‘Talon Company’ had confronted her near the outer perimeter of the Mall. One of them had started saying something about Burke - the suit jerk back in Megaton - and disarming the bomb. Called her the “saint from the Vault” - which is as dumb a name as she had ever heard - then they started firing at her! 

Although, this kinda makes sense. Burke had said something about working for a big wig in a tower - Tenpony Tower, maybe? - and so she did, technically, kill someone’s employee.

Dogmeat raced past her legs and latched onto one of the mercenary’s kneecaps. It exploded in a shower of blood, and a moment later, Dogmeat had finished chewing off the guy’s face. Charon had set the satellite on the ground and layed down enough covering fire for Jennifer to kill one of the other mercs with a well-placed shot. 

Charon ran forward and sucker punched the last merc. The man fell to the ground, barely conscious, and Charon swiftly picked up the other’s assault rifle. Jennifer stalked forward and aimed her pistol at his head. “Who hired out the contract on me?”

The guy wiped the blood flowing out of his nose. “Mister Tenpenny.” Ah, so it wasn’t Ten _pony_ but Ten _penny_. She was close. “Though Talon Company would’ve come after you eventually.” He grinned at her, and his teeth were bloody. “So, you gonna let me go? C’mon, we both know you won’t kill me. You’re too nice and _good_.” He spit it out almost like a curse, or an insult. He almost sounded like Butch, of all people. 

Jennifer shot a bullet into his kneecap, and he leaned forward with a shout to wrap his hands around it. He looked into her eyes, and she could see the fear in them. 

She put a bullet in his head, and his body slumped to the ground. 

-

The rest of the trip went by fairly uneventfully. There was a patrol of Brotherhood of Steel soldiers stationed at the Monument to protect it; probably part of their agreement with Three Dog. After speaking to the guard at the front gate, they were allowed in to take an elevator to the top. The ride to the top will haunt her nightmares forever. The thing was creaky and rusted to all hell. It swayed precariously, and Jennifer was sure they were going to fall to their deaths.

She wasn’t sure she could handle the ride down.

Regardless, Charon was pleased to be able to set the satellite down and rest his arms. Jennifer quickly unscrewed the broken satellite and switched it with the new one. She just left the old one there. Maye someone would repair it eventually. Three Dog was going to have a problem when another supermutant shot the new satellite, but that wouldn’t be her problem. 

Jennifer had been thinking a bit about what to do with Charon. He was good at following instructions and carrying things; she also got the feeling he needed a break from all the violence after doing Ahzrukhal’s dirty work for so long. She quickly pulled up the writing function on her Pip-Boy. She took a few seconds to type out a note and went over to the terminal that was barely functioning at the top of the Monument. She plugged in her Pip-Boy, transferred the note, and printed it out. Folding it neatly, she passed it to Charon, who looked at her quizzically. 

“When we leave the Monument, we’re going to go our separate ways. I’ve really appreciated your help so far, but I think I need to travel alone. Make your way to Megaton and give this note to Moira Brown, in Craterside Supply. She’ll be your new employer.” He watched her pull his contract out of her bag and took it when she handed it over. He held it in the hand with her note. “You’re officially out of my employ, now.” 

He gave her a simple nod, and the three of them made their way to the elevator and descended. Walking out of the gate, she and Dogmeat started in the direction of GNR. Jennifer still had to talk to Three Dog and find out where her dad went. She turned back to Charon, who had started traveling in a different direction, towards Megaton. “See you in Megaton, Charon!” Dogmeat barked his goodbye. 

The ghoul turned his head and held up a hand, in a wave goodbye. 

-

Sarah Lyons and her group were already gone by the time Jennifer got there, but that was to be expected. However she did feel a little… disappointed, maybe, that she wouldn’t be seeing them. Which was weird. She shook the feeling off and opened the door to Three Dog’s recording studio.

“I got your satellite installed. I don’t know if you checked your signals yet, but they should be good to go.” Three Dog wheeled around in his chair at her voice, grinning vividly. 

“Hell yeah the signals are good to go! I was just about to start recording, so you can go ahead and say something. Get over here!” 

She took a hesitant step forward. “But, I, um-” Three Dog swiveled around to face his recording setup and held up a hand for silence. 

He pressed a few buttons and some of the lights flashed. “People of the Capital Wasteland, you can HEAR _ME!_ Yeeeeaaa haaaa!! You can’t stop the signal, baby!” Three Dog waved her over and Jennifer stood behind his chair, looking over his shoulder. “All thanks to this lovely lady here, the kid from Vault 101. Go ahead and say something.”

She leaned a bit closer to the mic. “Um. I’m glad I could help get GNR back on the air.”

He elbowed her backwards lightly; enough to let her know that was good. “Isn’t she great, folks? Our own little vault saint.”

 _What is with people and that title?_ The saying reminded her of the Talon Mercs, and Jennifer frowned a bit. Three Dog turned off his recording equipment and got up from his chair. 

“Wait, was any of that live?” She had thought he reported live, but she also knew the radio ran throughout the night. 

“Nah, I’ll just use that as the intro for a news report.” He clapped his hands together enthusiastically. “Now, I’m sure you want to know all about where your dad went.” 

Thank God. “Yes, please, that’s what I came here for.” 

Three Dog told her all about Rivet City, the partially sunken pre-war battleship. Apparently, it was similar to Megaton: a huge settlement, but more untrustworthy of outsiders. Makes sense, it is in the middle of the D.C. area. Dad went to go meet an old colleague of his - one Madison Li. She worked on a water purification project with her parents “back in the day”. Well, that was the only lead Jennifer had. 

Time to make her way to Rivet City.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one is kinda long, more action than in the last chapter, but I think it came out well. Please let me know what you guys think!


	11. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is most of Rivet City

It took her three days to get to Rivet City. With her laser rifle out of commision, it was practically impossible for her to fight any supermutants. Amata’s pistol really was useless against them. Her plan devolved into: one, activate a stealth boy and two, don’t stop moving. Any rest consisted of very short cat naps with Dogmeat standing guard and all her food came out of cans eaten on the move. It was her most hellish experience so far on the surface, bar none. 

-

Jennifer had seen pictures of battleships. Hell, she’d even seen _holovids_ about them. They were huge: big enough to hold whole groups of old-world soldiers. They’d been around for centuries. None of these facts prepared her for facing the real thing. The battleship Rivet City was established in was _enormous_. They hadn’t even sent out the bridge yet, and already she could hear the rusted metal shifting and groaning from her spot across the Potomac. 

The intercom bolted on the post next to her crackled. Jennifer could vaguely see a group of men by the entrance. An authoritative voice sounded over the speaker. “What’s your business in Rivet City, stranger?” 

She stepped forward and pressed her finger to the button. “I need to speak with Madison Li. It’s important.” She let the button go with a _click_. None of the men moved on the other side of the bridge. A moment later, the voice crackled over the intercom again. 

“Alright, we’re sending the bridge over now. Don’t try anything.” A scream of rusty metal against metal, and the bridge started to move. With a great _clang_ , it fell into place. 

Jennifer dragged her feet across the bridge and resolutely didn’t look over the sides. The battleship before her loomed ominously, and it cast everything around her in shadow. Two men in black armor, she assumed they were guards, stood attentively but didn’t say anything to her. The third man stood by the intercom and spoke when she was within hearing distance. 

“I’m Chief Harkness, head of security at Rivet City. As long as you don’t try anything, you’re welcome here. And keep an eye on that dog.” 

Jennifer gave him a tired nod. “I’ll keep two eyes on him.” The man rolled his eyes, but he looked a little amused. “Where would I find Doctor Li?”

He opened the door leading further into the ship and held out a hand, indicating for her to enter. She walked inside and he followed her through; the door shut with a loud _slam_. They stood at the top of a set of stairs, leading down into a huge room full of merchant stalls and a crowd of people. 

He pointed to the other end of the hangar. “You see that door, by the stairs?” At her nod, he continued. “Go through, and go down one level. Then just follow the signs to the laboratory.” Easy enough. 

Jennifer smiled at him. “Thanks, Chief. See you later.” With that, she descended the stairs and entered the throng of people. 

-

Megaton hadn’t been too crowded. Sure there were a lot of people, but they were mostly dispersed throughout the city. The only crowded place she had been was Moriarty’s Saloon. 

The Rivet City Marketplace felt like the entire population of Megaton had been dropped in it and left to its own devices. The huge room had lights on the ceiling and in the market stalls, but it still felt almost too dark for the space it took up. The whole place smelled unwashed, but there was something else, too. A briney, rusted smell that overlaid everything. 

Different groups of people mingled in the open space and sported various sorts of clothes or armor; they carried a wide assortment of weapons and gear. Most had a sort of undercut style, or just shorter hair in general. Merchants leaned out of their stalls and shouted their wares, if they weren’t busy with a customer already. People stood around drinking and talking and laughing.

Jennifer was jostled the whole way through the crowd, but nobody really bothered her. Dogmeat practically glued himself to her side to avoid getting lost. _Maybe I should get a leash for this kind of thing._ They reached the door, and it took both her hands to pry open the latch. The stairwell was brighter and smaller than the hangar had been. 

Jennifer took a moment to just breathe. She wanted to lean down and rub Dogmeat’s ears, but she might fall over and pass out. _Get to the lab then sleep._ She repeated it as a mantra in her mind as blood rushed loudly through her ears. Stomp down the steps and find the sign. Follow it left, down a hallway, right, down a hallway, left again, then finally, she found it. 

With great effort, she opened the door and entered the lab.

-

Doctor Li wasn’t there. _Of course_ , she wasn’t. Some of the lab assistants said she was _somewhere_ , doing _something_ of great importance. Jennifer wanted to lie down under a table for sixteen hours, but that train of thought was interrupted by a very loud old man dressed in an immaculate suit. 

“Excuse me, miss! You wouldn’t happen to be interested in a job, would you? I could use someone of your…” his eyes flickered to the laser rifle hanging over her shoulder “...caliber.”

Jennifer sighed to express her heartfelt exhaustion. He didn’t seem to pay it any mind. Fine, then. “What do you want?” 

The man looked mildly taken aback at her short tone but rallied quickly. “I’m looking for someone to retrieve a piece of property for me. My name is Doctor Zimmer. You see, I’m from the Commonwealth, and there-”

Jennifer could not possibly bear listening to this man for a moment longer. “Cut to the chase before I leave.”

Zimmer paused. “I’m looking for an android. It’s different from the machines you would know here. Its a type of synthetic humanoid.”

A sharp nod. “I know what androids are. He escaped?” She wants to see how he’ll react to her wording. 

“ _It_ has malfunctioned and left the Commonwealth. You’re interested in helping me find it?” She’s definitely interested in something, here, and it’s not helping this slaver retrieve his synthetic man. 

“Yes. Are there any leads?” 

The guard behind Zimmer produced a holotape from one of his many pockets. She turned it over in her hands. The outer casing was unremarkable. No scuffs, writing, or distinguishable marks. Zimmer nodded at the tape in her hands. “Listen to that. There is a man who was contacted by the android: Doctor Preston. Speak to him and see if he has anything else for you. When you find my property, report back to me.”

She inserted the holotape into the player of her Pip-Boy, but didn’t start it. “Sure, Zimmer. Don’t worry.”

-

After a significant time navigating the twisting halls of Rivet City, she came across the Weatherly Hotel. Jennifer immediately paid a small sum of money for a room and promptly fell asleep for almost the entire next day. The headache she had been nursing was gone but was replaced by an incredible hunger. 

Now that she wasn’t trying to pass out on her feet, Jennifer could appreciate how well the room was maintained. It smelled of some cleaner - Abraxo, maybe? - and the floor and walls looked clean, with minimal rust. The sheets and bed had been even softer than the one in her Megaton home. 

She pulled on her boots and pistol belt, but left her combat armor and bag in the room. Slinging her laser rifle over her shoulder, she whistled for Dogmeat. “Let’s go, boy.”

-

Jennifer dropped off her laser rifle at Flak N’ Shrapnel’s for repair, and stopped by Gary’s Galley to eat a, frankly, _alarming_ amount of food. Then she had to go back around and traverse the hallways to find the Doctor’s office. 

Which turned out to be across the hall from the lab. Oh, well.

Jennifer was hit by the overwhelming smell of disinfectant as she entered. The bright, fluorescent lights assaulted her eyes and she was immediately sent back to Vault 101’s clinic. It was not a comforting or happy memory. Shaking off the discomfiting feeling, she stepped forward as Doctor Preston looked up.

“Hello, young lady. And what might you need?” He eyed her vault suit and snapped his fingers. “Oh, are you the one Three Dog’s been talking about?” Preston gave her a friendly smile. “Good job with Megaton. Now, what can I help you with?” 

His friendly disposition threw her off balance a little. _Who is this nice so early in the morning? Even if it is one in the afternoon._ Jennifer nervously cleared her throat. “Uh, yeah. That’s me. I heard that you had a holotape about an android? If you don’t mind, I’d like to listen to it.” 

Preston reached for one of the cabinet handles and pulled it open. “Sure, go ahead and keep it. The whole thing is a big hoax, anyhow.”

This holotape was significantly more scratched and scuffed than the previous one had been. The plastic was a weird, pale color, like it had been left in the sun for too long. It resembled others that she had seen in the wasteland so far. “Thanks, doctor.”

Stepping into the hall, Jennifer began the holotape that was already in her Pip-Boy. The android’s words echoed down the hall and reverberated in her mind. _Self-determination is not a malfunction._ Facial reconstruction she could believe. But the way he said he’d _be a new man_... were constructing false memories possible? Why would he even go to such lengths?

Jennifer shakily ejected the tape created by the android and entered Doctor Preston’s tape. The android had been looking for a doctor and a technician. She wondered if she could find someone like that in Rivet City. _Why else would Zimmer be here if the android wasn’t in the city?_

She remembered seeing a junk peddler in the marketplace. Seagrave or something. She stored the two played holotapes in one of her pockets and set off to see if the man knew anything.

-

As a matter of fact, Seagrave Holmes - _that_ was the name! - did know something. He had another holotape for her. The android and whoever was working to help him had acquired all of the tech necessary to construct a new face and fabricate memories. Jennifer almost wished she knew what a circuit neutralizer actually _was_ so she could completely appreciate the man’s enthusiasm for it. Her field of study was physical medicine, but she did know a thing or two about computers. This whole thing went a bit over her head, however. 

Now all she had to do was find the person with enough skill to do this sort of thing. It didn’t seem like Doctor Preston or Seagrave Holmes knew who had done it. She wondered who would know anything abou-

A hand shot out of an empty room and roughly pulled her against someone. Jennifer saw the door closing before her and panicked. She tried elbow her attacker, but then the cold sensation of a knife at her throat stopped her. Dogmeat barked and scratched furiously from the other side of the door. “What do you want?”

“For you to stop asking so many questions. I know you were hired by Zimmer to track down the synthetic man.” It sounded like a woman’s voice, but maybe… 

“Is it you? Are you the android?” The knife pressed further into her throat and the burning sensation let her know that it had broken the skin. Jennifer stopped talking.

“Listen carefully. On your right is a component taken from the synth. You will give this component to Doctor Zimmer and tell him the synth is dead. Are these instructions clear?” Jennifer made an agreeable noise. “Good. I will be watching you until Zimmer leaves the city entirely.” The distinct, electronic _beep_ of a stealth boy activating and the smell of ozone washed over her. 

The person let her go and Jennifer whipped around. She appeared completely alone in the room, although she obviously wasn’t. She stepped to her left and grabbed what looked sort of like a microchip mixed with a pilot light. Jennifer gave the room one last scan. “I wasn’t going to turn the android back in to Zimmer. I just wanted to help.”

Jennifer heaved the door open and Dogmeat sped inside to stand next to her leg, growling dangerously. This person obviously hadn’t thought their plan through. Her dog could easily smell and attack them if she let him do so. At her word, Dogmeat stopped growling and followed her out into the hallway.

-

Doctor Zimmer was disappointed by the death of his ‘property’. He waxed poetic about the tragedy of it all, and the harshness of the ‘barbaric wasteland’. He soon left Rivet City to return back to the Commonwealth - wherever that was. And Jenifer didn’t even get paid for any of this! 

Grumbling, she determinedly walked towards the security chief, Harkness. She would get down to the bottom of this, even if it killed her. And it might. Jennifer could feel the itch on the back of her neck that meant someone was still watching her. The woman couldn’t kill her in the middle of the marketplace, though. 

“Chief.” He raised an eyebrow to her in greeting. “I need some help. I’m looking for someone that could do surgery, but is also a technician. Does anyone in Rivet City meet that description?”

Harkness gave a thoughtful hum. “That sounds like Pinkerton. He used to serve on the city council, but he left to go live in the bow of the ship.” He turned a surprisingly stern gaze on her. “Don’t tell anyone I said that, though. The kids have been trying to convince the caravans that his ghost lives there.”

She put her hands up placatingly. “Of course. This stays between us. Thanks for telling me, though.” He gave her a friendly nod and turned back to continue surveying the area. 

Jennifer made her way to the bridge entrance, quickly. The guard agreed to watch Dogmeat for a little bit, and with that she was running across the bridge. Down the stairs, around the corner, and activate the stealth boy. Jennifer tried to walk mostly across rocks so as not to leave footprints in the dirt that could be followed. 

A path led to a door in the sunken half of the bow. The door was electronically locked and she cursed. It took a little bit of rewiring, but eventually the door creaked open and stale water flowed over her boots. “Ugh.”

The hallway had a few nests of those weird mutated crabs- she should really ask someone what those were called - and a few traps that had already been set off by the water. Another locked door, and then she finally encountered some kind of laboratory. 

With a final _beep_ , her stealth boy ran out of power. From the second floor, she could see an old man leaning over a table. He waved her down without looking up. “Yes, yes. Come down. I know you’re up there; I heard the door open.” She descended the stairs and he turned assessing eyes to her. “A vaultie, hm? Haven’t met one of you in years. Most don’t make it this far.” 

Jennifer nodded to acknowledge his statement. “I’m here about the android. Who is he?” 

Pinkerton got the unnerving, focused look her dad always had in his eyes when he went to go work on ‘side projects’. “Ah, A3-21. My favorite project yet, so far. Such advanced technology. Such a challenge!” He rubbed his hands together. “The android wanted a new face and memories. So I gave them to it. Here, it recorded a holotape before I gave it new memories.” 

She took the holotape and put it in her Pip-Boy. “So, did you completely erase his memories?”

Pinkerton gave her a knowing look. “I did not. I merely put them behind a firewall. They could be activated again, with the right passphrase.” A moment of silence. “Activate factory recall seven-zero-nine-seven-one.” 

Jennifer nodded. “Thank you for the information, Doctor Pinkerton.” With that, she was back out the door. 

-

Dogmeat followed her back into the marketplace. Jennifer’s gaze landed on Harkness, and she sped towards him. A unfamiliar dark skinned woman across the room turned at her entrance and tried to intercept her. Not before Jennifer reached Harkness. 

“Activate factory recall seven-zero-nine-seven-one. 

Harkness froze completely, a blank look in his eyes. A moment later, they widened fractionally. “Why would you do that?” 

The dark skinned woman stopped several feet away with a frustrated look on her face and clenched hands. 

Jennifer met his gaze firmly. “You can’t run away from your past and you can’t live a lie. You’ll never age, so what would you have believed in a hundred years? What was your plan?” 

Harkness parted his lips but didn’t speak. He inhaled slowly. “Is Zimmer gone?”

A firm nod. “Zimmer thinks you’re dead.” 

He exhaled just as slowly. “Good. And I think...you may have a point.”

Jennifer briefly touched his arm. “You’ll be okay.” She met the woman’s eyes. “Next time you put a knife to my throat, you had better kill me.” 

Her long day wasn’t over. She still had Doctor Li to talk to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tell me what y'all think!!! :)


	12. Failure and False Promises

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Madison Li and the march through the Jefferson Memorial

The dark-skinned woman - Victoria Watts was her name - roughly pulled her into a dark corner to demand an explanation. Jennifer had given her one, however reluctantly, to get the woman off her back. Watts didn’t seem very satisfied, but she had explained the Railroad: a group based out of Boston, Massachusetts that was dedicated to helping and protecting androids that were manufactured by some shadow-y group called the Institute. It all sounded very interesting to Jennifer, but she didn’t have the time to offer them any help. She parted from Watts with a lukewarm farewell; she wasn’t entirely sure if she had made an enemy of the woman or not. 

Jennifer and Dogmeat made the now-familiar descent to the laboratory. As she entered the large, well-lit room, she noticed that there was another doctor that had not been present before. Her heart lurched, and Jennifer intently studied the other woman from her vantage point at the top of the stairs. 

All the other doctors and lab technicians fluttered around her like the pre-war bees she had seen in holovids, back in the Vault. The older woman exuded an air of confidence and authority, and the lines around her mouth and eyes suggested she was either near fifty, or just under constant stress; the scatterings of grey hairs at her temples didn’t give a clear indication which was more accurate. 

Jennifer began to descend the stairs, and the noise her boots made on the metal caused the woman to briefly glance over in her direction. Half a second later, she turned back around fully, a shocked expression plastered across her features. “James?” _I don’t look that much like him, dammit!_ The older woman was already shaking her head, though. “No, of course not, I apologize. It’s just the vault suit, and your face…” She gave one more firm shake of her head, and as suddenly as it disappeared, the iron resolve settled back onto her features. She held out a hand to shake, already introducing herself. “I’m Doctor Madison Li; the head scientist here at Rivet City.”

Jennifer returned the strong handshake. “Jennifer Williams, but I’m sure that’s something you already know. I’m looking for my dad, and I heard he passed through here to see you. Could you tell me more about that?” 

Madison snorted and redirected her attention back to her clipboard. The action sourly reminded Jennifer of her father, and she felt the beginnings of a frown at the corner of her mouth. “James came through here, alright, quick as a radstorm.” _A what?_ Madison flipped the first page over the back of her clipboard and scanned the second. “He tried to persuade me to start working on Project Purity again. He was convinced that he had the solution to the power problem, determined to fix the machines. I told him I wasn’t going back, and he left.” Madison gazed back up at Jennifer. “Does that about answer everything?” 

Jennifer gave a little hum as she processed this new information. “No. What exactly is Project Purity? Is that why Dad left the Vault?”

Madison coolly raised an eyebrow. “Ah, so he didn’t tell you what he was doing when he left? Practically vanished overnight? That sounds about right.” _It sure does._ Something of her feelings must have shown on her face, because Madison smiled thinly at her, without any warmth. 

“Project Purity is what our old team - your mother, father, and myself - worked on twenty years ago. The goal was to purify the tidal basin to provide the people here a source of clean water, and to refresh the ground water so, eventually, plants would be able to thrive again. Unfortunately, we ran into insurmountable technical difficulties that culminated in the end of the project. The Brotherhood - you’re familiar with them? - originally provided security and resources until our research slowed to a stop. Catherine died, James left with you, and I started on new, valuable research here.”

Jennifer nodded slowly. She was glad to have a bit of an explanation, finally; sitting around in the dark had gotten to be annoying. “So did he say exactly where he’s going?”

Madison shrugged her shoulders. “He only talked about a G.E.C.K being the solution, but those aren’t real.” Jennifer had no idea what that term meant, but she wasn’t about to ask for an explanation. She got the feeling Madison Li already didn’t have a high opinion of her. “You could check for clues at the Jefferson Memorial.”

“Thank you, Doctor Li. I appreciate how helpful you’ve been.” Not only did the woman give her answers, but she didn’t ask Jennifer for anything in return. What a refreshing change of pace. 

Madison Li nodded her acknowledgement and turned back to her test tubes and microscopes. “Good luck. You’ll need it.”

-

It turns out she really, really did need the luck. The Jefferson Memorial was crawling with supermutants, and any place that housed the mutants was guaranteed to be a new kind of horrible. 

The inside of the building was as decrepit as any other old-world building she’d been in yet. Years of water leaking through the roof had left dark trails down the walls, pooling where the floor met the wall. Cracked, yellow tile covered the concrete ground and the smell of rot suffused the air. In several of the rooms, huge bags of human limbs and organs hung from the ceiling and dripped blood through the burlap into pools on the floor. 

There were no working lights, so Jennifer only had her Pip-Boy light to see by. When she had to fire her laser rifle and run in fights, the light moved with her arm dramatically and heavily disoriented her. 

Dogmeat lunged forward and latched his teeth into the leather flesh of a mutant. The thing screamed and lashed wildly in an effort to dislodge her dog. Jennifer aimed carefully and shot the thing under the chin, directly in the throat. It let out a grunt as it died and fell to the ground. Moving forward, she turned the corner and encountered two more of the monsters. The fighting was relentless; the supermutants a never-ending stream of yelling and terror. 

Jennifer hacked into one of the terminals and opened one of the solid, metal doors that were so common in these government buildings. There, on the desk, was where she found the first one.

Her father had left notes throughout the Memorial. Older ones, that he had obviously left behind, and newer ones that told her where to go. She ran the tapes through her Pip-Boy and couldn’t stop listening, even as she fought her way through the horde of supermutants.

Crack. _The Garden of Eden Creation Kit._ Flash. _My work on Project Purity never really stopped._ Hiss. _The very paragon of failure and false promises._ Sizzle. _I can’t let this die. Not again, not like this._

Jennifer finally, mercifully, stumbled out the other side of the Memorial. The sun burned her eyes, even as it fell beyond the horizon in a spectacular fade of red and orange. Dogmeat pressed his familiar weight against her leg. She knew where she had to go. Vault 112.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long to update! I've been very busy with college. I'll try to get another chapter or two out over Thanksgiving break.
> 
> As always, I appreciate any feedback or criticism!


	13. Reclamation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jennifer gets a taste of the cold

The wind blew her hair back from her face, and Jennifer breathed deeply. She and Dogmeat had just exited from one of the subway tunnels, and they were glad to be out. The things were dark, dank, and full of feral ghouls, and it smelled like it too. 

She jumped as her Pip-Boy let out an unexpected _beep!_ Curious, she brought it towards her face to investigate. The Pip-Boy had received a signal from an encoded source, and it crackled as it began to play.

_This is Defender Morrill, any Outcasts listening on this frequency report to sector 7-B, Bailey's Crossroads. This is a high-priority message, backup is needed at our location. Any personnel listening on this frequency please report at once._

Jennifer felt dread rise within her. She needed to go find her dad, but these people said they needed backup at once. She let out a grumble as the internal fight waged in her mind. Her map showed that Bailey’s Crossroads was only a few blocks away, and it was probably just supermutants they needed some help fighting. 

Jennifer tried to share an exasperated look with Dogmeat, but he only wagged his tail happily when she looked at him. Closing the map function, she sighed and turned to the direction of Bailey’s Crossroads. “Let’s go, boy.”

-

The Outcasts did not just need help fighting some supermutants. After the fight, the men in red power armor confronted her aggressively. They only let off their stupid holier-than-thou attitude when they realized she could help them with some neural interface problem by virtue of her Pip-Boy. 

She slipped some bulky goggles over her eyes and laid back in the virtual reality pod. The hum of machines around her soothed her nerves, followed by the quiet murmuring of the scribes as they started the program. They had promised she could have some of the loot when she got out, but honestly these guys were probably going to murder her the first chance they got. _Ah, well._ Her vision went dark…

… And suddenly she was _freezing!_ The wind bit through her combat armor directly to her skin underneath, and she brought her hands to her upper arms to offer some meager protection. The bright light of the sun reflected off some white substance all around her, and she realized with a jolt that it was snowing. She hadn’t seen snow on the surface yet. The Capital Wasteland was too hot and dry for it. 

She brought her gaze up from the powdery snow she was standing on and felt her jaw drop at the view. Simply put, it was the most gorgeous scenery she had encountered yet. She stood on a stone pathway carved into the side of a vast cavern, the bottom of which was covered in a grey mist. Around her, dark grey stone covered in more snow rose up around her like hulking titans. She dazedly realized that they were mountains. Huge mountains, rising into the sky like jagged teeth. 

A sudden voice called out behind her and she turned quickly to follow it. “That was a nasty fall you took! Thought you weren’t gonna make it when your chute bunched up like that.” The man looked like he had stepped right off a pre-war movie poster. Dark stubble covered a chiseled jawline and bright green eyes peered at her. “Here, you dropped these.” He handed her an ammo bandolier and an American-style assault rifle. After a moment of hesitation, she swung the bandolier over her head so that it hung across the front of her white combat armor. 

“We’ll still meet at the rendezvous point as planned so we can blow those artillery guns to hell. Be careful, the Reds up here don’t take prisoners.” And with that ominous statement, the man walked over to the sheer cliff. Pulling out some kind of gear, he began to scale the side of the mountain. 

Jennifer breathed out in a cloud of white mist. “Well, fuck.”

-

The body faded away in a cluster of blue pixels. Jennifer wiped the fake blood off her knife and continued up the rocky path that led into a hallway of metal. She was supposed to rendezvous with that soldier somewhere near here. With a sudden screech of metal hitting metal, a grate on the ceiling flew open. Silently, a limp body dropped from the vent, but fizzled away before it reached the floor. The man from earlier silently dropped down a moment later. 

He let out a short bark of a laugh. “Goddamn this place is swarming with Reds! Almost bought it out on the cliffs earlier.” He grinned at her in a friendly manner. “Who knew they could be so handy with a sniper rifle?”

She raised a haughty eyebrow at him. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I didn’t have any problems getting up here.” Jennifer must be getting desperately lonely if she was having fun snarking with a computer program. 

The man rolled his eyes at her. “We get it! Mister Fantastic didn’t have any trouble.” Interesting, he must only be programmed to respond to her as if she was a fellow male soldier. Although that does make sense, considering the pre-war social expectations of men and women. Not many women would have joined the army, and none of them would have had a combat role. He jabbed a thumb behind him at the doors leading outside. “We clear to blow the hell out of this place or what?”

With a nod, she walked over to the doors and pushed them open. 

-

Jennifer’s ears were still ringing from the explosions. After she’d blown the artillery guns to hell and back, she was immediately teleported to some kind of forward camp and put in charge of a “suicide squad”. Now, for whatever reason, she had to wait for them to actually show up. 

The soldier from earlier - Sergeant Benjamin Montgomery - was going to be a part of her team. The two of them had to go to different contested points and take down this weird pulse field. Although, from what she’d read about the Battle of Anchorage in the Vault, none of this seemed very accurate. She was pretty sure vertibirds weren’t in functional use until _after_ the liberation of Anchorage.

Her introspection was interrupted by the appearance of Montgomery. He sat next to her on the bench and reclined on his elbow, propped up by the table. “Our team should be here soon, sir, they just have to get their supplies from the quartermaster.” She wanted to roll her eyes at all the ‘sir’-ing and saluting she’d been having to deal with after her ‘field promotion’. He slid a red packet out of his pocket and offered it to her. “Want one?”

Jennifer inspected the cigarette pack held out to her. She’s a doctor, so she knows all the health risks involved with smoking, but this was a simulation. _It’s not like anything bad could happen._ She had always wondered what smoking was like…

She took a cigarette out of the pack and held it between her lips. Montgomery lit it with a flick of a lighter. The little bit of light danced off his hand as he lit his own. The taste was unbelievably strong and bitter; she coughed after the first exhale. After a few drags, she stopped noticing the flavor and focused on the dryness of her mouth and the heat from the cigarette. She also started feeling light-headed.

Montgomery startled her by pointing to his watch. “Sir, it’s time to go.” The two walked through the entrance. She flicked the butt of the cigarette onto the ground outside the tent and crushed it with her heel. A group of men were sitting in the back of a military truck. Montgomery grinned at her. “Let’s kick some Commie ass… sir.”

-

Jennifer watched the doors of the Chinese military base get blown off their hinges with a small sense of satisfaction. Soon she would be free from this frozen hell and back to the warm, wonderful wasteland. The snow and cold had lost their glamour after about an hour. She’s just glad she’s not stuck somewhere further north in the real world; she doesn’t even want to think about living in a nuclear winter. 

She and Montgomery crossed the pulse field at a run, and entered the battle. Montgomery fell onto one knee and opened fire at one of the Chinese soldiers. She stood behind him upright and fired over his head at another. This was a strategy they had developed over the course of the simulation and it seemed to be effective. The two of them split off onto different sides of the battlefield once the Chinese soldiers in front of them were dead. 

She brought her assault rifle up to bear and took down another two. They fizzled away, leaving only small pools of blood that steamed in the air. She heard an explosion off to her right; probably Montgomery and another of his grenades. His A.I really liked to use those for some reason…

Suddenly, there was a man in front of her that looked different than the other soldiers. He had stars on the shoulders of his uniform, similar to General Chase. She realized that this was the man she’d have to kill for the simulation to be over. 

The general stabbed the man kneeling on the ground in front of him with brutal efficiency. He pointed at her with his sword. “Your forces will not bear the might of the Chinese army!” God, he sounded like a bad pre-war holovid. 

Jennifer reloaded her gun and fired at him. “I’m going to kill you SO MUCH.” He moved with impossible speed and deflected her bullets with his sword. In the blink of an eye, he was in front of her and slicing his sword down. She grabbed the stock and the butt of her gun and held it over her head to catch the blade. The sword sliced halfway into the wood and stuck when he tried to pull it out. 

She threw the rifle away with all her might, and it took the general’s sword with it. She pulled the knife from her belt and slashed it in front of her. He jumped back and held his fists out in front of him in a classic combat stance. The two circled each other for a moment, feinting forwards to test the other and watch them flinch. Jennifer soon tired of this dance and raced forward with the hope of catching him by surprise. 

He dodged to her left and struck her in the side of the head. She turned her body to follow and lashed out with her knife. Blood spurted on the outside of his forearm, but he didn’t seem to notice. He reached out with his uninjured arm and tried to grasp the weapon. She pulled it back and stepped into his space then grasped his neck with all her might. The knife pierced the flesh of his stomach with a quiet _schlick._ She stabbed him over and over until he stopped moving. 

She let the body fall to the ground and watched drops of blood slide off her knife and land in the snow. A moment later, her muscles locked up and she couldn’t move anything but her head. She looked up and General Chase approached her. “That’ll do, soldier. Stand down.” He indicated the body behind her. “That’ll complete this portion of your training. Before you get out, you’ll be instructed in the proper use of power armor. Then you’ll report to your superior officer for training and your next assignment. Dismissed!”

The world around her disappeared in a flash of blue pixels.

-

Jennifer opened her eyes to complete darkness. She felt the virtual reality goggles pressing into her face, and the wires that hooked her up to the scribes’ vital monitoring system. She weakly pulled at the goggles, but her hands didn’t want to cooperate. She had just removed them as the pod began to open around her with a _hiss_. 

A profound feeling of confusion passed over her as she realized that she was completely alone in the server room. With a jerk, she disconnected the wires reading her vital signs. Her legs still seemed to be asleep, but she could feel them coming back with a tingling vengeance. She rubbed them to try and help the circulation. After another minute of this, she seemed to be well enough to stand. 

The door leading into the hallway of the compound was open, and she could hear voices echoing down to her. None of them sounded happy. She leaned around the corner to watch the leader she had spoken with earlier face off against one of his troops. They were standing nose to nose and yelling loud enough, now, that she could clearly hear what they were saying.

“I’ll see you in _hell_ , traitor!” The leader pushed his index finger towards the face of his subordinate.

The other man backed up and lifted his minigun. “Not if I see you first!” The whirring of the gun started and gunfire broke out. She hurried over to where Dogmeat was growling next to her bag. She grabbed a few of her homemade grenades and a lighter. By now, the sound of stomping footsteps had replaced the fighting. “Let’s get that vault girl!”

 _Nope nope nope!_ Jennifer lit the fuses on the three grenades and tossed them out into the narrow hallway. Frightened exclamations followed the grenades and she slammed the button to close the door. She grabbed her laser rifle and pushed a metal table on its side. Mugs shattered on the ground and pencils went rolling. Propping her laser rifle on the side of her makeshift cover, she waited. 

Eventually, the metal door slid down. A second later, one Outcast soldier came barreling into the room firing a shotgun. Jennifer fired her rifle into the vulnerable join of the arm pit where the occupant was least protected. The heat of the metal melted the vulnerable flesh and the Outcast member screamed. He dropped his rifle and grabbed his arm, allowing her the opportunity to fire into another weak spot: the neck. A few shots later and he stopped moving.

Jennifer walked out of the simulation room and into the carnage of the hallway. Several suits of power armor lay on the ground, unmoving. Her grenades had melted parts of the wall and floor in addition to the metal suits. She quickly walked past them to a set of double metal doors. Accessing the terminal, the set of doors opened to the armory.

Inside was a veritable gold mine of weapons and armor. The shining jewel was obviously meant to be the untouched set of power armor that stood in the middle, but she was more interested in the Chinese stealth suit. It came with a set of instructions in English - _thank God_ \- and she giddily went to change into her regular gear and grab her bag. 

On the way back, she noticed a pack of cigarettes sitting on a tech console. Hesitating for a moment, she stuffed them into the pocket of her Vault suit and tried not to think about it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I actually really like how this chapter turned out! Note that I have never smoked nor do I endorse it.


	14. Creepy Crawlies in the Dark

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We all hated getting this quest in the game

The shadow of Megaton rose up before her, the dark metal of the city contrasted by the plain greys and browns of the dusty ground below it. A low hum reverberated through the air around her, courtesy of the generators that kept the city alight, accompanied by the buzzing of hundreds of people living their lives in the relatively small confines of the city. A warm glow shone from the city and into the night sky, and Jennifer took an appreciative glance at the peaceful scenery.

The new suit of power armor gave her the odd, contrasting feeling of being both well-protected and extremely vulnerable; Jennifer felt significantly more exposed than when she just wore her normal gear. Her movements felt odd and clunky, almost as if she were moving through heavy air, or maybe water. Her boots crunched through the gravel, and Dogmeat gave Deputy Weld a curious sniff before following her through the hulking doors of the city. 

-

Jennifer had never held any strong feelings about the location of her house before. Releasing the hydraulic clasps of the armor with a _hiss_ , she stepped out of the walking armory and abandoned it in the corner of her house, with a newfound appreciation of her home’s relative closeness to the entrance of the city. She couldn’t imagine having to walk through a crowd of people in that armor. 

She puttered around the first story of her house, putting the random things she had collected away and re-sorting and sanitizing her medical kit. A quick check showed that the time wasn’t _too_ late, so she made her way out the front door, passing by Dogmeat, who had claimed the sofa as his napping spot - his legs splayed wildly in the air. He gave a rumbling snore as she locked the door behind her. 

Jennifer unzipped the top half of her Vault suit, down to the the belt wrapped around her waist, and freed her arms from the long sleeves, tying them together and letting them fall across her belt. A cool breeze ruffled her hair and smoothed across the back of her neck, and she pushed open the door to Moriarty’s Saloon. 

Navigating her way through the crowd was incredibly annoying, but the smile on Gob’s face when their eyes met made the effort worth it. He was just so friendly that she couldn’t help but be glad to see him, and he really didn’t deserve all the rude behavior the people here showed him. He laid the rag he was using to clean a glass over his shoulder and leaned towards her as she reached the bar. 

“Long time no see, stranger. The radio tells me you’ve been busy.” She rolled her eyes dramatically and laughed at him in return. 

“I’m not really sure you should believe everything that Three Dog says, but yeah, a lot’s happened since I saw you last, I guess.” Her mouth pulled down a bit in thought, but she resisted the urge to frown outright. No need to rain on the parade already. 

He gestured behind him to the shelves of liquor filling the bar space. “Want something to drink?” 

She eyed the various bottles warily. Jennifer wasn’t completely sure that Moriarty didn’t supplement the drinks with paint thinner, but Gob probably wouldn’t ask if it would kill her… “Do you have anything sweet?”

He reached under the counter to grab a Nuka-Cola and lifted it for her inspection. “I can mix a bit of vodka in with this and you’d barely know the difference.” She wondered what the point was, then, if you couldn’t even taste it, but she nodded her assent. 

He quickly poured the soda into a glass and mixed a shot of vodka into the drink. He swiftly collected her caps. “I’ve got to, you know-” he made a vague gesture with a hand “-but I’ll talk to you later. Enjoy!” 

She smiled back at him and wandered over to a free seat near the door. It gave her a good view of the first floor - not that there was much going on. Jennifer sipped slowly at her drink and grudgingly admitted that she could see the appeal to alcohol, now. It wasn’t like she was feeling anything, but the vodka added a subtle flavor to the sugary-sweet soda. _Almost like cherry, maybe?_ She contemplated getting another drink, but her eyes locked on Moriarty himself behind the bar. 

His stance was aggressive, arms gesticulating wildly and voice rising, as he crowded Gob’s personal space. The ghoul’s shoulders were a steel line of tension, and he hung his head down and away from Moriarty. She couldn’t tell what the man was shouting over the din of the bar, and a quick sweep of the room showed that none of the other patrons were even bothering to take note of the scene. The crack of shattered glass brought her gaze back to the two figures, and Gob clutched the side of his face, another hand steadying himself on the counter. She felt anger rising in her chest, settling like a ball of white-hot fury. 

She watched as Moriarty made his way out of the bar, not even sparing her a glance. Jennifer fixed her gaze on the glass in her hand, waiting. 

A few minutes later, she exited the bar. 

-

With Megaton’s walls, Jennifer couldn’t exactly see the sun rising, but the sky mixed in a colorful array of red and orange. By the time she reached the door to Moira’s shop, her cigarette had burned down to a stub. She flicked the end away and released her last breath in a slow exhale. The smoke curled up into the air and away. 

It only took a single knock for the deadbolt to turn and Moira’s face to appear in the doorway. Her eyes lit up and she smiled widely. Jennifer felt herself smiling back; Moira’s genuine good cheer was infectious. “Oh, hey! When did you get here, Jennifer?” Moira stepped back from the doorway and opened the door wide. With a gesture of invitation, Jennifer stepped into the familiar shop with Dogmeat on her heels. 

From the looks of it, nothing had really changed in the few weeks she was gone. The shelves behind the register were filled with an assortment of merchandise, and the counter was covered in the innards of a terminal that Moira had gutted for parts. Jennifer followed Moira into the back room, where a small table was covered in loose papers and notebooks. “Take a seat! Tell me what’s been going on.” The other woman’s mouth twisted in an amused smile. “At least, something I didn’t hear off the radio.”

Jennifer shook her head in feigned exasperation. “You know I have no control over that, right? I didn’t ask to be radio famous.” 

Moira _tsked_ her displeasure. “You did when you chose to help those people, and trust me, I’m not complaining about that. So-” she crossed her arms and leaned back in her chair “-did you find a lead on your dad?”

Jennifer can feel her mouth curl in displeasure. “Yeah, I did. That’s actually why I came back through Megaton. Got here pretty late. And I was going to ask: do you want to give me the rest of chapter two for your book? I can work on any of it when I have some free time.” 

Moira’s face lit up again in response. “Absolutely do I want to give you chapter two to work on! Look at these notes, and I’ll give you the rundown.”

Jennifer’s attention is divided between copying the notes down on her Pip-Boy and listening to Moira’s explanations of the tasks. She’s so focused that she practically jumps into the air at the feeling of a finger tapping her shoulder. She turns around quickly to face her assailant. “I- uh- what?”

Charon stands there with two old, cracked mugs. A warm feeling washes over her at the sight of the bodyguard, and Dogmeat’s tail thumps the ground in delight. Moira’s voice drifts over her shoulder. “Thanks for the drinks, Charon. Mutfruit?” He gives a single nod in response. “Great choice! If you’ll just set them down here?” She frees a spot on the table from the onslaught of the papers, and he gently places the mugs before them. 

Jennifer smiles up at the ghoul. “How do you like working with Moira, Charon?” 

He gives a thoughtful hum in response. “I rather like keeping watch over the shop. Miss Brown is a far better employer than Ahzrukhal ever was.” He gives a nod in Moira’s direction. “I need to get back to my own tea, and keeping guard.” He makes a swift exit. Jennifer wonders if he was in a different part of the store - she didn’t notice him when she came inside. 

She curls her hands around the mug in front of her. Heat radiates from the ceramic, soothing her already, and steam curls gently from the dark purple liquid. She hadn’t considered that there would be plants to make tea from out here. She lets out an appreciative hum at the first sip. It tastes as good as it looks - a rich fruity flavor, but not overly sweet. The warmth travels down and settles pleasantly in her stomach. 

Moira notices that she seems to have died and gone to drink heaven. “Like it?”

“Mmm . . .” Forming words was beyond her at the moment. Moira just laughed at her.

-

The two talked for a while longer. Jennifer explained how she hired Charon in the first place and why she felt uncomfortable making him fight for her. Moira just shrugged and said that she appreciated having the second set of hands around. 

Jennifer went back to her house soon after and re-equipped her weapons and armor. She appreciated the familiar weight of the bag against her back, and the armor covering her chest. She was nearing the gate, ready to go back into the wasteland, when she was intercepted by Sheriff Lucas Simms. He raised a hand in her direction. “Hey, vault girl. I’ve got a couple of questions I’d like to ask you.” 

Jennifer smiled back at him. She knew what this was about. “Sure thing, Sheriff. What did you need?” 

He looked right into her eyes, gaze piercing. “There’s been an incident involving Colin Moriarty. He was found dead last night, neck snapped from a fall outside his saloon. I just needed to know if you knew anything about it.”

She knew plenty about it. Jennifer gazed steadily back at him. “I saw him at the saloon last night, but he was definitely alive then. I can’t remember anything out of the ordinary.”

He looked at her for one more long second before his gaze relaxed. “Well, I thought it was worth asking, anyway. I’ve always thought those damn handrails were too short, and look where we are now.” He brought a hand up to scratch his chin thoughtfully. 

She raised an eyebrow at him. “Did you think there was foul play?”

He shrugged in return. “Not particularly. The primary suspects would be Gob or Nova, but they were both working until the bar closed early in the morning, and nobody saw them leave.” Simms gave a nod of his head at her. “I just thought maybe you’d know something - problems have a way of getting solved when you’re around.” Well, that was certainly true in this situation as well. He just wasn’t privy to that information. 

He started to walk back in the direction he’d come from. “Be seeing you, vaultie.”

-

She was following the road out of Megaton, because even the cracked asphalt roads are better than stomping through the dirt, when Dogmeat suddenly tensed beside her. He growled, low in his throat, ears pressed against his head. Jennifer tried to still herself, listening intently for any sounds. Instead, a strange smell floated on the wind. Almost like… something burning?

She turned in a slow circle and spotted a thick, black cloud on the horizon. It only seemed to be a few miles away, but a tide of dread swept through her. She knew that something bad had happened there. Just as the thought rose in her mind, she spotted a small figure running in the distance. She swung her laser rifle off her shoulder and went to meet them.

-

It was a child, because of course, what else could it be? 

His name is Bryan Wilks, he told her in a rush of breath. Tears streamed down his face and cut tracks through the dirt and ash coating his face, and he asked her for help. 

The smell of ozone wafted up from her laser rifle. Rage built in her chest with the fall of every chitinous body, as she fought her way to Bryan’s house - to look for his _father_ , of all people. She hates the way the thought twists in her chest and burns her eyes. A solid kick brings the door to the ground in a _crash!_ and she’s inside the house, running. The smoke is cloying and thick and she can’t keep her eyes from watering. Dogmeat howls from outside the house, and a piece of the roof falls in with a smash and scattering of sparks.

She finds the body in the back of the house. Blood congealed the wounds from ant pincers, and half of the man’s face is burned away. Jennifer can’t seem to stop coughing and her chest _burns_ \- from smoke and anger. Someone _will_ answer for this. 

-

Bryan tells her that there was a scientist that had moved into town, months before. He was strange and reclusive, and didn’t particularly like answering his questions, and he tells her where the scientist lived.

She finds the rusty shack on the perimeter of the town. The hinges squeal in protest as she shoves the door open, and light floods the room. A terminal hums in the corner of the dark room, monitor sending out a bright glow. 

It doesn’t take long to get into, and it takes even less time to find the entrance to the Metro tunnel. 

-

Her bright Pip-Boy light throws strange looking shadows across the walls of the Metro. The end of her cigarette glows a faint red, and gray smoke trails off of it and out of the sides of her mouth. A metal door at the end of the tunnel swings open, and a man in a lab jacket begins stepping onto the stairs. _Bingo._

She doesn’t stop her purposeful march, and he looks up from his clipboard with a jerk of his head. “Oh! You startled me!” He peers at her though his thick-lensed glasses as she continues her steady approach. 

“You’re Doctor Lesko?” A burst of smoke leaves her mouth with the words. He makes some sort of words of assent, but she isn’t really paying attention by then. She slings her laser rifle over her shoulder in a smooth movement and unholsters Amata’s pistol. The tunnel loudly echoes the three shots that puncture his chest. Doctor Lesko stumbles back into the wall behind him and falls to the ground - leaving a long smear of blood on the cold concrete behind him. 

She takes the butt of her cigarette and grinds the end on his shoulder and drops the burnt-out cigarette onto his lap. Jennifer and Dogmeat step over the body to find the ant queen.

-

The bandage rubs uncomfortably against the inside of her vault suit, and Jennifer irritably resists the urge to scratch at it. She had gotten burned in the last fight with the ant queen and her soldiers, and healing burns with Stimpaks was tricky business. She had to cut off the burned skin on her hip - which thankfully wasn’t too large an area - so that the Stimpak could begin the process of regrowing the skin cells. It left her with a janky scar in the outline of a circle, smaller than the size of her palm. 

Her boots echo off the metal of the hallway floor of Rivet City. Next to her, Bryan Wilks was practically vibrating with excitement. After she had killed the ant queen and left the Metro, Jennifer had found him hiding in one of those old preservation shelters. He’d told her about his Aunt Vera in Rivet City, and thus the two had spent a few days traveling on the road. 

They stop outside the Weatherly Hotel entrance, and Jennifer sets a hand on Bryan’s shoulder. He looks up at her, eyes wide with excitement. “Remember, not a peep until I call for you, alright?” He clasps his hands together and nodded quickly. With a pat on his shoulder, she steps into the hotel. 

“Vera?” The woman in question turns around at the front desk and smiles. She didn’t look to be too much older than Jennifer herself, somewhere in her mid-twenties.

“Vault girl! Good to see you again. I didn’t think you be back so soon. Did you want to rent a room?” Jennifer shakes her head and lets out a sigh.

“No. I’m afraid I have some bad news.” Vera’s eyes widen in shock, and Jennifer continues before the other woman can get anything out. “Grayditch has burned down in an accident, and your brother didn’t make it. I’m sorry.” She really is, too.

Vera’s hands fly up to cover her mouth, and she pales so sharply that Jennifer thinks she might pass out. “Oh God.” She leans against the counter beside her. “Did...what about Bryan? Do you know anything?” 

That way a good sign. Jennifer nods her assent. “He survived, and he’s looking for a place to stay. He was wondering if you might be willing to take him in.” 

Vera nods immediately and quickly. She actually looks like Bryan did in the hall a moment ago. “Of course! I’d love to have him here.”

“Great.” Jennifer turns sightly to face the doorway. “Bryan, you can come in.”

She’d barely finished the last word before he burst into the room, bag slapping against his back. Dogmeat trotted in at a more sedate pace, tail wagging. 

Bryan threw his hands into the air and cried out in a loud voice. “Aunt Vera!” He ran around the counter to hug her and she leaned down to return it. Jennifer smiled widely at the happy reunion. She turned around to leave a moment later, but she’d only taken one step before a small body slammed into her leg. 

“Wait!” Bryan’s arms came around her waist in a hug. “You get one too! I’m so happy to be here!” Jennifer lowered herself to one knee to hug the boy back properly, and his arms became a vice around her neck. 

She squeezed him back just as tight, hands on his old backpack, and his pointy chin on her shoulder. Tears burned in the corner of her eyes. “I’m happy too.”

And she really was.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this damn update took so long, y'all. College has been wild. Good news is that I think my writing has gotten better, which was the whole goal of this thing, so yay. Leave comments to let me know how I'm doing, please! Or just leave kudos, that’s also super encouraging!


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